Because public health relies mainly on statistics and because the notion of an average patient or an average family is so far from the real life experience of clinical practice, many child and adolescent psychiatrists are repulsed by public health.

Paradoxically, at the moment, the main determinants of child and adolescent psychiatric care are based on public health considerations. Practices that are “evidence based” or not, that are “cost effective” or not, strategies of prevention that are encouraged or not: all are determined by public health considerations. Even the outline of what should be our job as psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, etc. comes from the same logic.

There is thus an urgent need of empowerment. Child and adolescent psychiatrists have to engage themselves with lucidity and energy in the field of public health. Because this is the best way, today, to improve the standards of what can be proposed to our patients. Because this is the best way, today, to make our message loud and clear.