Prf. Luis Joaquín Garcia-Lopez, for the Department of Psychology at the University of Jaén and head of the network, visited both universities to present the report on the state of the art, needs and priorities for promoting mental health and emotional well-being in young people.
20/9/2018. The Interdisciplinary Network for the PROmotion of Mental Health and Emotional Well-being in Young People (Red PROEM) has started to develop international ties by presenting its report and roadmap at the University of Cyprus and the West University of Timişoara (Romania). During both visits, the network was represented by PI, Luis Joaquín Garcia-Lopez.
First, the PROEM network travelled to Nicosia (Cyprus), invited by the director of the University of Cyprus’ Department of Psychology Georgia Panayotou. During the visit, Luis Joaquín García gave a talk entitled ‘Promoting emotional well-being in young people: Where are we? Gaps, needs and priorities recommended by the PROEM network’.
The purpose of the talk was to highlight the current situation facing the promotion of mental health and emotional well-being in young people, as well as to explain how the PROEM network was created and managed and how the report and roadmap was developed after hearing the opinions of young people, families, stakeholders including politicians and counseling associations, end-users, minority groups such as the LGBTI community, mental health researchers and others across disciplines including public health, ICTs, language analysis, physical education and epigenetics.
While in Cyprus, a meeting was held with Eleni Karagianni, president of the Cyprus Psychologists’ Association, member of the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations (EFPA), and contributor to the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development of the Council of Europe. The aim was to disseminate on a European level the document drawn up by the PROEM network to help increase the visibility of the impact that these problems have and of the priorities identified by members and associate partners.
A few days later, Luis Joaquín Garcia-Lopez headed to Romania to visit the West University of Timişoara. Similar to his time in Cyprus, the PROEM network’s lead representative went into the main conclusions drawn from the international gathering on youth mental health and emotional well-being held in Jaén back in April, discussing the topic under the title ‘Current status, gaps, needs and priorities identified by the PROEM network for promoting mental health and emotional well-being in young people’,. As a result, a collaboration agreement was established with an interdisciplinary team comprising the lecturers and researchers Bogdan Tulbure from the Department of Psychology at the West University of Timișoara; Cosmin Cernăzanu-Glăvan and Marius Marcu from the departments of Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and Computer Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Timișoara; and Catalin Marian from the Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology of Victor Babeș University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timișoara.
Through this dual international experience, the PROEM Network maintains its commitment to unifying and improving research into youth mental health on a European level, from the perspectives of both prevention and treatment.
