The Telephone Medical-Psychological Emergency Post: a New Tool Used by the French Medical-Psychological Emergency Units (CUMP) to Improve Trauma Care

French medical and psychological emergency units (CUMP) were created in 1995 to take care of psychological traumas resulting from collective events. Their interventions, as close as possible to the event, aim at containing the immediate emotional reactions of the people affected and at encouraging a first account of what they have experienced in order to prevent the onset of post-traumatic stress disorder. Since their creation, the CUMP have constantly improved their organization and tools to meet the needs of the traumatized. While this was not initially contemplated, the Paris CUMP resorted to telephone clinical interviews in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami and the 2015 terrorist attacks. These telephone interviews enabled to reach victims who could not go to the medical and psychological emergency posts (PUMP) because of their geographical location or symptoms. Currently, telephone interviews are regularly carried out through telephone PUMP, which have proved to be a valuable addition to "physical" set-ups on the ground. On the basis of this positive clinical observation, the French ministry of Health recently approved the creation of a "national telephone PUMP" under the responsibility of the Paris CUMP. It can be activated in the event of an exceptional health situation in France or abroad if French nationals were involved. In 2018, it was activated twice, during the Lombok earthquake and the Strasbourg terrorist attack, and this confirmed the benefits of the new telephone tool in various situations.