Meeting between Luis Joaquín García, Professor of Psychology at the University of Jaén, and David Artime, General Director of Educational Planning, Evaluation and Equity of the Department of Education of the Principality of Asturias.
14/12/2022.- Luis Joaquín García, main responsible for the PROCARE and DAREMOS initiatives and the PROEM Network and professor at the University of Jaén (UJA), has presented the results of these two initiatives to promote health and emotional well-being in young people, as well as the keys to the PROADEMO project, in a telematic meeting with David Artime, General Director of Educational Planning, Evaluation and Equity of the Ministry of Education of the Principality of Asturias.
In his presentation, Luis Joaquín García delved into the free help provided to almost 2,000 schoolchildren at risk of suffering emotional problems and their families. In this way, through the implementation of DAREMOS and PROCARE, a significant contribution has been made to the promotion of the mental health and emotional wellbeing of young people between 12 and 18 years of age throughout the country.
Luis Joaquín García highlighted that DAREMOS “is composed of an interdisciplinary team (Psychology, Corpus Linguistics, Big Data and Epigenetics) to advance in the early detection of adolescents at risk of developing emotional difficulties”. Regarding PROCARE, he pointed out “that it is the first transdiagnostic group prevention initiative at international level that has demonstrated its effectiveness 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)”.
In addition, about the novel PROADEMO project, which has just started, he explained that it aims to design and develop a digital training package aimed at school personnel, young people and health workers, so that they can improve their skills and knowledge to offer quality mental health services to adolescents at risk of developing emotional problems as a sequel to the pandemic.
Luis Joaquín García UJA emphasized “the relevance of the interest of legislative institutions in the prevention and promotion of emotional wellbeing in adolescents”. He also pointed out that “there is no health without mental health, and there is no future without emotionally healthy and resilient adolescents”.
For his part, David Artime expressed “the commitment of the Regional Ministry of Education of the Principality of Asturias to study and explore ways of collaboration that allow the implementation of PROCARE in our territory within the selective or indicated prevention during this academic year”. In this regard, he stressed “the commitment of the Ministry of Education for literacy in health and emotional well-being of young Asturians, and the provision of resources for early detection and intervention of emotional problems in adolescents to educational staff and the school community”.
3 benchmark initiatives in the promotion of health and emotional wellbeing in young people
The DAREMOS initiative is a nationwide project with the participation of researchers from the UJA and the Institute of Biomedical Research of Malaga (IBIMA), in collaboration with Yotta Code, spin off of the UJA.
The PROCARE initiative is also a nationwide project made up of 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).
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), the Youth group of the Federación Estatal de Lesbianas, Gais, Trans, Intersexuales y más (FELGTBI+) and the Consejo de la Juventud de España (CJE) integrate the External Advisory Board of both projects.
PROADEMO is a project (PDC2022-133401-I00) funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the State Research Agency and the European Union through the “Next Generation EU” funds within the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
