Le programme PEGASE : un parcours de soin précoce visant à limiter les conséquences délétères de la maltraitance et/ou de la négligence sur la santé et le développement des jeunes enfants protégés

Young children in residential nurseries constitute a particularly vulnerable population due to their overexposure to traumatic experiences. In addition to these negative events that are at the origin of the protection measure, there are traumas that can be generated by the rupture, the separation and the placement. Additionally, convergent research has highlighted wide-ranging negative trajectories attributable to both the short and long-term consequences of abuse and neglect and their neurobiological impact on health and development. As a result, while child maltreatment was once considered a social problem, it is now recognized by the WHO as a global public health problem. There is an urgent need to equip child protection services to be able to respond to the unique, specific and particular needs of trauma-exposed children as soon as possible; the first months in child welfare service can provide a powerful opportunity. The PEGASE experiment of a coordinated care pathway, implemented in April 2019, aims to improve the identification of developmental delays and psychological disorders in children under the age of three, as well as the provision of early care.