This center specializes in the treatment of childhood obesity. The demonstrators denounce the inaction of the State and the ARS in this affair.

“What will become of the young people? Specialized educators, parents and patients gathered this Tuesday morning in front of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Regional Health Agency in Marseille. They denounce the closure of the Birds center in Sanary-sur-Mer, in the Var, an establishment specializing in the treatment of childhood obesity.

If around a hundred young people were welcomed before, there are now only around twenty, explains Alice Colin, specialist educator at the Birds center at the microphone of BFM Toulon Var.

“At the Les Oiseaux centre, they allowed us to welcome twenty young people whereas at the time, we welcomed a hundred. Already we had to reduce the number of cares enormously. There is a need which is enormous , which has been identified, which has been recognized by various elected politicians in the region but also outside the region. The need is immense,” says the specialist educator.

“It’s primordial”

If this center does indeed close its doors, Alice Colin affirms that there will be “no more solutions for these young people”. However, former patients present at the demonstration mentioning a “primordial” center and the importance of having “support, accompaniment”.

“We can’t stand the fact that an establishment like this, which has made us grow and valued in our everyday lives, can close. It has given us confidence in ourselves and confidence in life in relation to all the mockery that we may have had in relation to being overweight”, testifies Noémie Robert, a former patient at BFM Toulon Var.

The management having not found a buyer, the site was to close last December. But the manager LNA Santé had been convinced to postpone the cessation of activity until February 18, explains Var Morning.

Decision before January 31

The Specialized Commission for the organization of consultative care has just issued “an opinion rejected on January 17”, relating to our colleagues. This administrative back and forth is denounced by the demonstrators.

“In writing emails to the State, to Mr. Véran, to the entire Elysée, to the ARS, to the LNA. No one is responsible for this closure. At some point, you will have to tell us who is It’s too easy to say ‘it’s not me, it’s LNA’, ‘it’s not LNA, it’s the ARS'”, affirms Chloé Artaud, mother of a patient from the center of Birds.

The Regional Health Agency must study the project and give its decision on whether or not to close the center, before January 31.