Luis Joaquín García, professor at the UJA and main responsible for the PROEM Network, has presented the current situation of health promotion and emotional well-being in young people and the implementation of different initiatives to help adolescents with emotional problems in this stage of pandemic.
26/03/2021.- This morning, Luis Joaquín García López, professor at the University of Jaén (UJA) and head of the Network for the Promotion of Mental Health and Emotional Well-being in Young People (PROEM), presented the PROCARE initiative to members of the Health and Consumption Commission of the Congress of Deputies, chaired by the Popular Party deputy Rosa Romero.
The meeting, held telematically, was framed around the work carried out by CoEspacio, a multidisciplinary alliance whose aim is to promote the physical and psychological well-being of children and adolescents during the pandemic, especially those who are in a situation of social, economic, health or educational vulnerability. Several of the deputies who are part of the Health and Consumption Commission participated in it: Mª Teresa Angulo and Elvira Velasco from the Popular Party; Miren Josune Gorospe, from the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV); and Mª Luisa Carcedo, Elvira Ramón and Josefa Andrés from the PSOE.
During his speech, Luis Joaquín García delved into the current situation of the promotion of mental health and emotional well-being in young people, with an exhaustive analysis of the shortcomings and priorities detected by the researchers of the PROEM Network. In his speech, he stressed that “there is an urgent need to increase investment in mental health services. Otherwise, we face the risk of a massive increase in mental health problems in the coming months”.
Likewise, along with data on the impact of COVID-19 on youth mental health, he presented the PROCARE initiative. “It is our duty to leave no one behind and pay special attention to at-risk youth. PROCARE was born under that prior. It is the first free targeted prevention program aimed at young people between the ages of 12 and 18 at risk for emotional problems. It is an online project that has allowed us to extend it nationally and is having important results in the context of the psychosocial difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
Finally, Luis Joaquín García presented the PROEM Network’s proposals to be implemented after the pandemic. Specifically, he focused on the need to establish early detection, prevention and intervention programs based on evidence to address the emotional health and well-being of young people, paying special attention to gender, rural areas and vulnerable groups; the commitment to training mental health professionals and teachers and school staff to help in the early detection of emotional problems; and the improvement of coordination between schools and mental health.
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 FELGTB Youth group are part of the project’s External Advisory Board.
Learn more about PROCARE: https://redproem.es/en/what-is-procare/
