Nancy Pionnié-Dax, Hélène Lida-Pulik, Franck Enjolras, Solène Martin, Gaëlle Paupe, Valérie Discour : anthropology and clinical Practice

The « Maisons des Adolescents » treatment centers of two districts around Paris are built on a network of pluri-professional workers dealing with adolescents. They provide access to low threshold primary and secondary care services, as well as organizing referrals to other services. They also provide support and training to professionals and help them share some difficulties. They enhance the links between professionals, provide training and exchange groups. But they also have some paradoxes, like adults’ ambivalent opinion of adolescence. The fact that psychiatrists are actively involved in settings that sustain « mental health » is also questioned. When clinical referral is needed, the authors underline the effects of their active implication in the local network, in terms of symbolic effects and dynamic effects in the clinical encounter with the adolescent. The most important thing is to make the encounter real and supportive for the identification and identity processes of adolescence.