[What role can doctors play in health education at school? Analysis of an original multi-professional experience]

The Espace Santé Jeune (ESJ) is a health education project conducted since 2008 in a French middle school. Pupils are invited to share their experiences about health in group speaking sessions led by a general practitioner (GP) accompanied by a municipal youth worker or a teacher. This study, based on the experience of the actors, seeks to understand the role of physicians and to identify the levers of the project.

A mixed method study was conducted from January to June 2015 by focus groups, individual interviews and questionnaire. Results of the inductive analysis by grounded theory methodology were compared to the quantitative results.

30 participants were included in the qualitative study (20 pupils, 5 teachers, 4 GP, 1 youth worker) and 107 pupils answered the questionnaire (71% response rate). The ESJ is a space centered on the speech of young people, experienced as a moment of freedom and appreciated by 70% of participants. The role of the GPs during the sessions oscillates between "animation of debates" and "expertise", and the complementarity of the competences with the educational professionals facilitates their intervention. Beyond the sessions, the presence of the GP is perceived as essential because their status brings a global legitimacy to the project. The intervention is based on the commitment of the professionals, the multi-professionality, the coordination and the sharing of a common culture for prevention.

The ESJ is an innovative experience encouraging the commitment of GPs in local public health actions.