The Professor of Psychology at the University of Jaén (UJA) and head of this project for the promotion of health and emotional well-being in young people was the guest speaker at the seminar co-organized by the Directorate General of Youth of the Community of Madrid and the European Youth Information and Counselling Agency (ERYICA).
27/02/2023.- Luis Joaquín García, Professor of Psychology at the University of Jaén (UJA), presented the results of the DAREMOS initiative (Detection of Adolescents at high risk of EMOtional problems: exploring the role of epigenetics and language for prevention indicated in Mental Health) in the framework of the webinar ‘Youth Information and Mental Health, working for the health of young people’. A training event aimed at workers of Youth Information Services, co-organized by the Directorate General of Youth of the Community of Madrid and the European Youth Information and Counselling Agency (ERYICA).
In this way, Luis Joaquín García developed the results obtained thanks to the implementation of DAREMOS, a project that has helped more than 400 schoolchildren at risk of suffering emotional problems and their families. Luis Joaquín García highlighted “the success of DAREMOS in improving the detection of adolescents at high risk of developing emotional problems such as anxiety or depression with the support of disciplines such as Corpus Linguistics, Big Data or Epigenetics”.
The DAREMOS initiative is a project co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Ministry of Economy and Knowledge of the Andalusian Regional Government and the participation of UJA researchers Luis Joaquín García, Lourdes Espinosa and Belén Diez and researchers from the Genomics Unit of the Institute of Biomedical Research of Malaga (IBIMA), Juan Miguel Gómez and María Jesús Pinto, in collaboration with Yotta, spin off of the UJA. In addition, the Youth Institute (INJUVE) attached to the Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030, the Spanish Association of Mutual Help against Social Phobia and Anxiety Disorders (AMTAES), the Confederation of Organizations of Psychopedagogy and Guidance of Spain (COPOE), and the Youth Council of Spain (CJE) are part of the External Advisory Board of the project.
At the opening of the webinar, Nikolay Yordanov, Director General of Youth of the Community of Madrid, highlighted the significant increase in emotional problems in adolescents as a result of the pandemic and the need to improve the mental health literacy of professionals in the youth sector. Eva Reina, President of ERYICA, then emphasized the importance of working for the emotional well-being of young people and outlined ERYICA’s work in this regard through projects such as YIMINDS.
The second part of the webinar revolved around the sharing of good practices led by Youth Information Centers and told by their protagonists. Thus, Nadia Berodia and Silvia Escribano, from CPRS San Fernando de Hernares spoke about the project ‘ANIMARTE’; Vanessa Gómez, from CPRS Martínez Campos de Chamberí presented the online focus group “Que no te coman el coco”; Fran Polo, Youth technician of the Mancomunitat Camp de Túria developed his experience in the informative talks in the IES of that region; Silvia Solà of the City Council of Castellterçol and Mariona Altimira, coordinator of the Foundation La Xarranca, explained the influence of Kastell SIOAJ.
Finally, the webinar ended with the interview of Popy Ares, coordinator of Dynamization and Citizen Participation of the “Marcelino Camacho” Center of San Fernando de Henares, to Asier Garcia, a user of this center who suffered bullying in high school, has problems of phobias and anxiety and is currently receiving psychological support.
