Professors José Antonio Muela, Lourdes Espinosa and Luis Joaquín García present the results of PROCARE, DAREMOS and DIGITAS, focused on addressing the emotional problems of young people.
11/1/2022.- Suicide prevention and the promotion of health and emotional well-being, especially in young people, were the main themes of the meeting between researchers from the University of Jaén (UJA) and the PROEM Network, José Antonio Muela, Lourdes Espinosa and Luis Joaquín García, with political representatives of the Ciudadanos group at national and regional level.
The meeting, held at the Campus Las Lagunillas, was attended by the national deputy and head of Communication of Ciudadanos in Andalusia, Guillermo Diaz, the delegate of the Ministry of Equality, Social Policies and Conciliation of the Andalusian Government in Jaen, Encarna Gutierrez, and the provincial deputy of the orange formation, Ildefonso Ruiz, strong advocate of the need to address the prevention of suicide among young people.
In their sharing, researchers from the UJA and the PROEM Network presented a series of measures focused on suicide prevention, mainly through the emotional strengthening of young people. Among them, they highlighted the need to implement training programs on early detection of young people with, or at risk of suffering, mental health problems in teachers and health personnel, the implementation of actions and educational programs on mental health literacy and suicide prevention aimed at parents and guardians, the attention to young people who contact the suicide hotline by mental health professionals with accredited training in child and adolescent population or the imposition of the specialty of Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence.
Likewise, José Antonio Muela and Lourdes Espinosa presented the results obtained in the PROCARE, DAREMOS and DIGITAS initiatives, which have helped more than 1,500 schoolchildren at risk of suffering emotional problems and have contributed to the promotion of mental health and emotional wellbeing of young people between 12 and 18 years of age and their families in Spain and Andalusia.
For his part, Luis Joaquín García, main responsible for both initiatives, participated telematically in the meeting to highlight the success of PROCARE as the first selective prevention program aimed at young people in the current stage of psychosocial difficulties that the pandemic is representing. The UJA Professor emphasized “the relevance of showing interest from the legislative sphere in the promotion of mental health and emotional wellbeing and in the prevention of suicide, which in this stage of the pandemic is becoming one of the biggest problems among young people”. He also expressed his gratitude to legislators and those responsible for education in various autonomous communities, as well as entities such as the Youth Council, AMTAES, COPOE, INJUVE and FEGTBI+. Among them, highlighted the sensitivity of the Provincial Technical Team for Educational and Vocational Guidance of the Territorial Delegation of Education in Cordoba who already have the team of the University of Jaen to carry out the training of its network of counselors and schools in Cordoba on how to address cases of suicide and emotional problems in the school environment. Likewise, the impact of PROCARE and the social return rate has generated that several entities request that this initiative be maintained with institutional support.
Meanwhile, Guillermo Díaz stressed that “mental health has to stop being the poor sister in healthcare”. In this sense, he indicated that during the pandemic, attempts at self-injury in people between 15 and 30 years of age have multiplied by 250 percent and pediatric psychiatric emergencies have increased by 200 percent, in the same way that one out of every two families has detected a change in the behavior of their children after the pandemic. “We know that mental health problems can be solved if resources are made available and adequate information is provided; we must convey to those who are suffering from this situation that the public administration is with them,” he stressed.
This working meeting of UJA research staff was part of the working day on mental health and suicide organized by the Citizens group in Jaén and within the various activities that the PROEM Network team maintains with different government entities and parliamentary groups.
