ERYICA, in collaboration with the Council of Europe, organized this webinar aimed primarily at young people, youth workers, as well as health and education professionals.
05/12/2022.- Luis Joaquín García, professor of Psychology at the University of Jaén (UJA), presented the PROCARE initiative to promote emotional well-being in adolescents at the webinar “Do you kNOw distress? – Youth information responses to mental health”, organized by the European Youth Information and Counselling Agency (ERYICA), in collaboration with the Council of Europe.
The event, aimed at young people, youth workers, as well as professionals in education, health and the general public, provided information on the impact of the pandemic on the health and emotional well-being of young people through the vision of specialists in child and youth mental health and other disciplines; and allowed to hear and value the point of view of young people on this issue.
Luis Joaquín García gave the opening lecture of the webinar, analyzing the mental health needs of young people and delving into successful actions carried out to improve this situation. In his presentation, he broke down the keys of the initiatives to promote emotional well-being in adolescents and young people that UJA has led in recent years: PROCARE, DAREMOS, PROADEMO and DIGITAS, and national projects such as BIG HUG and international projects such as Level UP, in which his team participates.
Luis Joaquín García emphasized the objectives of these projects and the results obtained in some of them. In this regard, he stressed that “helping adolescents at risk of emotional disorders through a selective and preventive intervention based on building resilience in young people is one of the pillars of PROCARE”. In turn, he stressed that “the implementation of PROCARE reduces the effect of risk factors and strengthens the emotional resilience of adolescents at risk or at high risk of emotional disorders”.
PROCARE is the first transdiagnostic prevention initiative at international level that has demonstrated its efficacy in the intervention of adolescents at risk of developing emotional problems such as anxiety or depression, under the framework of selective prevention (PROCARE+) and at high risk under the framework of indicated prevention (PROCARE-I).
It is a project (PID2019-111138RB-I00) funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the State Research Agency, which has an External Advisory Board formed by the Spanish Youth Institute (INJUVE) of the Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030, the Spanish Association for Mutual Help against Social Phobia and Anxiety Disorders (AMTAES), the Confederation of Organizations of Psychopedagogy and Guidance of Spain (COPOE), the Spanish Youth Council (CJE) and the Youth group of the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Trans, Bisexuals, Intersexuals and more (FELGTBI+).
The day also included a presentation by Eva Reina, Director of ERYICA; an interview by Maria Fsadni, member of ERYICA’s Youth Ambassadors Commission, with Anna Knobbout, member of the Advisory Council on Youth; and presentations by Anna Nesladek and Angelina Pereira, ERYICA technical staff. Also, examples of good practices in youth information services and other related sectors were presented through the testimonies of: Chara Spyropoulou (IASIS NGO, Greece), Patricia Venâncio (ANIJ, Luxembourg) and Silvia Solà and Mariona Altimira (Castellterçol City Council, Spain).
