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Introduction: France has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Anxiety, depression, burn out and the high proportion of post-traumatic stress disorder proved to be the most expected troubles caused by this pandemic and the confinement. Medico-psychological emergency units (CUMP) have been solicited at the very early stage of the pandemic because CUMP units are very well known by the French government and systematically associated to emergency plans. Methods: In this article we describe the process which has been developed to cope with the psychological needs in the general population. At a first level, platforms of volunteers specialised into listening were available. Then those platforms could directly mobilise the CUMP in case of psychiatric disorders. It ran over the whole first wave and it has been reactivated because of the second confinement in France. Results: During the first wave, approximately 1% of all the calls made on the national Covid number required to be redirected to the listening platforms. Of this group, 4% were related to reactive pathology or a psychiatric decompensating that required adapted and specialised care. Conclusion: The high rates of psychological distress detected in the general population in recent scientific literature seem discrepant with our findings of relatively low reorientation towards the CUMP. Nevertheless, our study highlights that the response of the CUMP network in France during the first wave was supportive. The second wave displays its adaptability to the public health policies.

The growing recognition of post-traumatic stress disorders and the need to intervene early justifies the creation of emergency medical-psychological units. The nurse has a major role to play within these teams.

Resume La catastrophe de type attentat constitue un evenement qui, par son intentionnalite humaine, sa forte valence mediatique, symbolique et societale, revet un fort potentiel traumatogene. Depuis quelques annees deja, les Cellules d’Urgence Medico-Psychologiques interviennent en immediat sur ces evenements. Leur action « sur le terrain », par exemple lors de l’attentat perpetre a Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, petite commune situee entre l’Isere et le Rhone, le 26 juin 2015, merite d’etre mieux comprise. Outre le reperage de l’etat clinique par le tri et les soins directs prodigues aux victimes impliquees, l’organisation et la gestion psychologique de la crise generee par un tel evenement constituent des strategies therapeutiques indirectes tout a fait essentielles et specifiques.

The growing recognition of post-traumatic stress disorders and the need to intervene early justifies the creation of emergency medical-psychological units. The nurse has a major role to play within these teams.