More than a month after the Annecy attack, the two injured children, aged two and two and a half, of French nationality, were discharged from the hospital, BFMTV learned Thursday from concordant sources. What about his psychological reconstruction now?
Although the vital prognosis was compromised, her condition still requires monitoring, especially for the little girl who was affected in the pancreas.
“This medical follow-up as such is difficult for children, the injections, the exams… It will still be a bit painful,” explains Dr. Stéphane Clerget, a child psychiatrist, on BFMTV.
Parents’ communicative anxieties
The victims of this attack are very young. “We can explain to them but understanding will not be enough to relieve the pain,” continues the specialist. “There’s a childhood amnesia that makes it an accident for them.”
According to him, it is especially important to focus on supporting parents, who can be traumatized. “Their anxieties can be communicated to children,” warns the child psychiatrist.
It recommends, therefore, that parents take care of their “psychological state”, essential to reassure children, getting help if necessary from their environment, friends, family or health professionals.
Delete the “victim identity”
However, it is later, when they grow up, that the children will realize what happened and what they experienced. “There, they can compensate psychologically,” says Stéphane Clerget.
Explain that the signs to detect this are quite visible. “There will be behavioral changes in the child: traumas, nightmares, anxieties such as phobias to go out…”, she lists, advising not to hesitate to question the child if we have doubts.
Furthermore, it is important that these young children “do not adhere to a victim identity.” “They were able to survive by putting a lot of themselves to heal – they must be congratulated and valued for that – but they are not only that, they had a life before and they have a life after: that is not what defines them”, abounds Stéphane Clerget.
“We are looking for individual identities: that status helps define us but it limits and imprisons, we must be very careful”, concludes the child psychiatrist.
Source: BFM TV
