Around 850 adolescents from Marmolejo between 12 and 18 years old and their families will benefit from this project, funded by the Provincial Council of Jaén and the City Council of Marmolejo and presented this Tuesday, October 10, in the framework of the World Mental Health Day.
10/10/2023.- The University of Jaen launches the PROCARE initiative (Selective prevention through a transdiagnostic intervention for adolescents at risk of emotional problems) in the municipality of Marmolejo, with the aim of detecting emotional problems in the adolescent population between 12 and 18 years of this town and contribute to the improvement of their health and emotional well-being. This is the first municipality in Jaén in which, for the moment, this program is implemented.
The presentation of the agreement for the implementation of PROCARE in Marmolejo, made through a contract with the Office for Transfer of Research Results (OTRI) of the UJA, has taken place this Tuesday at the Campus Las Lagunillas of the UJA in the framework of the World Mental Health Day and with the presence of the Vice Chancellor of Research and Knowledge Transfer of the UJA, Mª Victoria López, the Professor of Psychology at the UJA and main responsible for PROCARE, Luis Joaquín García, the provincial deputy for Equality and Youth, María Dolores Ruiz, and the mayor of the City of Marmolejo, Manuel Lozano.
At the presentation ceremony, Mª Victoria López highlighted “the commitment of the UJA to address the problems affecting the mental health of young people through such projects, so that we contribute to mental health ceases to be a taboo subject in our society”. In turn, he insisted on the relevance of World Mental Health Day and the need to transfer to society the knowledge generated in the UJA, “in this case knowledge transfer to our territory, to the young population of Marmolejo”.
For his part, Luis Joaquin Garcia said that “PROCARE is a pioneering initiative worldwide in the field of prevention and personalized medicine, being the first selective prevention program aimed at adolescents between 12 and 18 years at risk of emotional problems.
Likewise, the main person responsible for this project pointed out that “young people are the sector of the population that has suffered most emotionally during the pandemic and post-pandemic. There has been a massive increase in emotional problems such as anxiety or depression, and currently in Spain the figures indicate that one and a half million young people have emotional problems or are at risk of developing them. This is a very worrying fact that makes it necessary and urgent for institutions to invest in mental health and that needs the media loudspeaker of commemorative dates such as today’s”. In this sense, he emphasized the work done through PROCARE, which helped 1,100 young people from all over Spain in 2021, and more recently, more than 1,000 adolescents from the Balearic Islands thanks to funding from the Balearic government’s Department of Education and Professional Training. Now, around 850 young people from Marmolejo will also be able to benefit from this initiative in favor of the emotional wellbeing of their youth”.
Manuel Lozano, mayor of Marmomejo, highlighted “his pride for being the first town in the province of Jaén and Andalusia to implement PROCARE”. And likewise, he stressed his interest in “preparing the youth of Marmomejo to face the future because the development of our society depends on them. We want to strengthen and accompany the young people of Marmolejo to feel the support of the administration in all those problems that arise around their health and emotional well-being.
In her speech, María Dolores Ruiz claimed the importance of World Mental Health Day and valued “the involvement of the Provincial Council of Jaén and the commitment of the City Council of Marmolejo for the social and emotional well-being of its citizens, to further progress in curbing the high number of young people suffering from such problems.”
This initiative is funded by the call for Equality and Welfare of the Diputación Provincial de Jaén for the implementation of activities and programs aimed at the youth population, as well as with own funds of the City Council of Marmolejo.
The research work of the UJA is supported by the previous experience of PROCARE as a project funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, involving a team of researchers from the UJA, formed by Luis Joaquín García, Lourdes Espinosa and José Antonio Muela, Mar Díaz, Manuel Vivas, David Jiménez, Laura Zafra, Pilar Martínez and Jesús Sánchez, the researcher from the University of Miami (USA), Jill Ehrenreich-May, as well as a team of researchers from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, led by researcher Josefa Canals and a team from the Universitat Miguel Hernández, led by researcher José Antonio Piqueras.
In addition, PROCARE (PID 2019-111138RB-I00/AEI/10. 13039/501100011033) has an External Advisory Board formed by the Spanish Youth Institute (INJUVE) attached to the Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030, the Spanish Youth Council (CJE), the Princess of Girona Foundation (FPdGi), the Youth Group of the Federación Estatal de Lesbianas, Gais, Trans, Bisexuales, Intersexuales y más (FELGTBI+), the Confederación de Organizaciones de Psicopedagogía y Orientación de España (COPOE) and the Asociación Española de Ayuda Mutua contra Fobia Social y Trastornos de Ansiedad (AMTAES).
