Mental Health Policies Seminar

The Mental Health Policies initiative aims to structure a space for research and debate on the epistemological, political, economic and clinical dimensions of mental health, bringing together social sciences, psychiatry and user experiences. It comes at a time when mental health, declared a ‘major national cause’ in 2025 and 2026, is emerging as a key public policy issue, while remaining subject to significant conceptual and institutional tensions.

The seminar is the result of a collaboration between LIEPP, the Société Médico-Psychologique and the journal Annales Médico-Psychologiques. It brings together an interdisciplinary group of social science and public health researchers, clinicians, institutional representatives and community actors. We organise three to four meetings per year.

Organisers

• Matthias Brunn (Sciences Po, LIEPP)
• Elisa Chelle (Paris Nanterre University / Sciences Po, LIEPP)
• Yann Auxéméry (Société Médico-Psychologique / Paris 1 University, CESSP)

The seminar

Producing a collective analysis of public policy between science and society

The field of mental health is characterised by significant institutional, professional and scientific fragmentation: a multiplicity of structures, the coexistence of biomedical, psychodynamic and social paradigms, and compartmentalisation between hospitals, general practice and medico-social services. This dispersion complicates the collective representation of stakeholders, hinders the clarity of care pathways and makes it difficult to formulate shared guidelines.

The seminar documents in particular the shifting boundaries between ‘psychiatry’ and ‘mental health’, the effects of budgetary constraints and indicator-based management on the organisation of care and the attractiveness of professions, the tensions between models of evidence (clinical, epidemiological, economic, qualitative) and the place of users, carers and peers in defining priorities and mechanisms.

A lasting interdisciplinary dialogue

Following on from the study day ‘Mental health policies: plural concepts and perspectives’ (20 June 2025, LIEPP / Société Médico-Psychologique), this seminar aims to establish a lasting collective for the analysis of mental health policies. It brings together researchers (public health, sociology, political science, economics, law, psychology, anthropology), practitioners in the field (psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, health and medico-social facility managers), representatives of administrations and agencies, community actors, users and carers.

The aim is not to produce a single model, but to create a regular forum for discussion, bringing together analysis of political and economic determinants, feedback from the field on practices and innovations, paradigmatic controversies, and reflections on the therapeutic relationship and concrete forms of democratic participation.

Institutional anchoring

The initiative is led by the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for the Evaluation of Public Policies (LIEPP, Sciences Po) and the Medical-Psychological Society (SMP), in conjunction with research centres in epidemiology and population health, social science laboratories, health economics research organisations, hospitals and community organisations. This interdisciplinary approach should make it possible to better link field observations, quantitative data and qualitative analyses, to fuel public debate and to formulate operational proposals on the organisation, financing and governance of mental health policies.

Agenda

Inaugural session

20 June 2025 – Mental health policies: plural concepts and perspectives

LIEPP / Société Médico-Psychologique

This inaugural day laid the foundations for the ‘Mental Health Policies’ collective by taking stock of the structural tensions in the field (representation of ‘psychologists’, plurality of paradigms, budgetary constraints, innovative but little-recognised local dynamics, subtlety of the therapeutic relationship) and defining a multi-year programme of half-day study sessions.

In addition to these events, the ‘Mental Health Policies’ collective welcomes proposals for thematic sessions (representative bodies in the field, the appeal of the speciality, the definition and measurement of ‘care’, etc.) and to foster long-term dialogue between the different worlds of mental health: clinical, social sciences, users, administration and policy makers.

Contacts

For further information or to submit a proposal: matthias.brunn@sciencespo.fr, elisa.chelle@parisnanterre.fr, yann.auxemery@hotmail.fr

See also the new section ‘Mental Health and Politics’ in the Annales Médico-Psychologiques, created to support and expand collective work: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/annales-medico-psychologiques-revue-psychiatrique

Publications

Mental health under strain: Epistemological, political, and clinical challenges within a fragmented field. Annales Médico-Psychologiques 2026