The autonomous community of Extremadura will support health literacy and emotional well-being of young people through the dissemination of the PROCARE project, which aims to help adolescents at risk of suffering emotional problems free of charge.
2/03/2021.- Luis Joaquín García López, professor at the University of Jaén (UJA) and head of the Network for the Promotion of Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing in Young People (PROEM), has recently presented the PROCARE initiative to the working team of the Regional Ministry of Education and Employment of the Regional Government of Extremadura.
The meeting, which was held telematically, was attended by the General Director of Innovation and Educational Inclusion, Juan Pablo Venero, and the Head of Educational Programs and Attention to Diversity Service, José Vadillo.
Luis Joaquín García presented the data on health and emotional wellbeing in young people, as well as the launching of the PROCARE initiative, the first free selective prevention program aimed at young people between 12 and 18 years of age at risk of suffering emotional problems in the current period of psychosocial difficulties marked by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is an initiative that is being carried out online at a national level and will last until the month of June. The PROCARE research team includes professionals from the Psychology Department of the UJA, the Rovira i Virgili University, the Miguel Hernández University of Elche and the University of Miami (USA). In addition, the Instituto de la Juventud (INJUVE) of the Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030, the Asociación Española de Ayuda Mutua contra Fobia Social y Trastornos de Ansiedad (AMTAES), the Confederación de Organizaciones de Psicopedagogía y Orientación de España (COPOE) and the Jóvenes LGTB group of the Federación Estatal de Lesbianas, Gais, Trans y Bisexuales (FELGTB) are part of the project’s External Advisory Board.
For his part, Juan Pablo Venero expressed that “the Regional Government of Extremadura supports literacy in health and emotional well-being for young people in Extremadura, even more so in this difficult period marked by the pandemic”. At the same time, he pointed out “the need to bet on selective and indicated prevention in the framework of emotional problems in childhood and adolescence”.
In this sense, the Regional Ministry has obtained the commitment to disseminate the PROCARE Project to schools in Extremadura, counselors and young people in the autonomous community, in coordination with Youth, through its informative video. Likewise, they have agreed to study the mutual support in the approach of the presentation of Propositions Not of Law on mental health and in the incorporation of the PROEM Network to the Suicide Prevention Plan, in which they are working from the Extremadura entity.
