Résumé
The places given to General Practitioners (GPs) as regards real-life experiences and expectations of parents who are compelled to an educational assistance or measure after a worrying information or a reporting procedure (in the French system).As regards child welfare, the GP does not appear very active in alerting procedures and seems little informed. Based on half-guided individual interviews carried on parents living in the South of France and who are concerned by an educational assistance or measure after a worrying information or a reporting procedure, this qualitative research aimed at recording parents’experiences and expectations as regards their GP. Collecting parental difficulties was a secondary objective. A thematic analysis was led to reach our main result, whereas conceptual categories were used for the secondary result.10 interviews were led from June to December 2017. Our 12 parents’ real-life stories were always related to several GPs holding 4 different places in their own history as well as in the child’s one. GPs were variable empathic supports yet expected, they had a fickle awareness of the family situation, they were key witnesses but also pivotal players as regards care. These places were dependent on resorts with many restrictions, more or less specific to the situation, and depending on the way we perceive the role of the GP. The predominant parental difficulties reported were isolation and a lack of confidence, which increased with the educational assistance or measure. They were exacerbated because of a disruption in power relationships, a parental struggle perceived as continuous, a parental depreciation, familial destabilization and the lack of understanding of the measure taken, as a limit of acceptance, which characterized parental real-life experiences. Listening, supporting, multi-professionnal teamwork involving the parent, are trails to investigate in primary and secondary prevention.