The Professor of Psychology at the UJA and head of the PROEM Network calls for urgent investment in the mental health and emotional well-being of adolescents.
13/7/2021.- The professor of the University of Jaen (UJA) and head of the Network for the Promotion of Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing in Young People (PROEM), Luis Joaquin Garcia addressed the defense of health and emotional well-being of young people as part of Human Rights in times of pandemic, in the first of the panels of the XV edition of the Summer Courses of the UJA in Torres.
Luis Joaquín García participated in the panel focused on the ‘defense of Human Rights in times of pandemic’, together with experts in other subjects such as Mª del Carmen Muñoz, Professor of International Public Law and International Relations of the UJA; Rafael de Asis, Professor of Philosophy of Law at the University Carlos III of Madrid; and Nancy Yañez, Director of the Human Rights Center of the University of Chile and judge of the International Court of the Rights of Nature; and under the moderation of the UJA professor, Alberto del Real.
In his speech, Luis Joaquín García pointed out that “the world is experiencing a stressful global event unprecedented in our current history. This situation has an impact on the rights of young people, which has exacerbated existing inequalities and created others”. Likewise, he indicated that “Covid-19 is causing and will cause a devastating emotional impact that will leave deep scars if strategies are not provided to strengthen young people emotionally”.
Along the same lines, Luis Joaquín Garcia explained that “the pandemic has strongly affected the health and emotional wellbeing of young people, due to the increase in youth unemployment, the rupture between education and personal life balance, job insecurity, excessive use of new technologies and isolation”. In this context, he called for urgent public investment so that all young people can develop their right to good health and emotional well-being. As an example, he presented the report on the state of mental health of young people prepared by the PROEM Network, the PROCARE and DAREMOS initiatives, launched with the leadership of the UJA with the aim of helping adolescents at risk of suffering emotional problems such as anxiety or depression, or the ‘Spain 2050’ Report, which includes some of the recommendations of the PROEM Network such as strengthening the provision of early detection services and training in mental health of teachers and health personnel.
About the course
The XV Summer Courses of Torres are organized by the University of Jaén, the City Council of Torres and the International Foundation Baltasar Garzón (FIBGAR), with the sponsorship of the Provincial Council of Jaén. They will be extended in online format until Wednesday, July 14, under the co-direction of Baltasar Garzón and Rodrigo Lledó, president and director of FIBGAR, respectively, and by Juan Manuel de Faramiñán and Alberto del Real, professors at the University of Jaén.
Two panels will be held today, one on health law and the distribution of vaccines in times of pandemic, and the other on rural women and gender discrimination in the pandemic, which will include the development of a case study on the 14th. On the same day, the last day of the course, there will be a debate on the future of humanity after the pandemic, concluding with an open dialogue on the defense of Human Rights between Dolores Delgado, Attorney General of the State; and Rigoberta Menchú, Nobel Peace Prize 1992.
