The contest, promoted by the Provincial Council of Jaén, has highlighted the work of the PROEM Network team in favor of promoting the health and emotional well-being of young people.
12/21/2023.- The interdisciplinary Network for the PROmotion of the health and emotional well-being of young people (PROEM Network), led by the University of Jaén (UJA), was awarded yesterday in the Research category in the first edition of the Jaenícolas Awards, promoted by the Provincial Council of Jaén.
The Jaenícolas Awards are a competition created to highlight people and institutions that work in the province of Jaén with, for and from the youth. The delivery ceremony, held at the Miguel Hernández de Vilches Theater, was attended by the president of the Provincial Council of Jaén, Francisco Reyes, the first vice president, Francisca Medina, the deputy for Equality and Youth, Mª Dolores Ruiz, the Director of the UJA Research Secretariat, Ana María Fernández, and the mayor of Vilches, Adrián Sánchez.
The award was collected by the PROEM Network team, represented by the professors of the Department of Psychology of the UJA, Lourdes Espinosa, José Antonio Muela and Luis Joaquín García, main person in charge of the Network. In his speech, Luis Joaquín García pointed out that “More than 1 and a half million young people in our country present or are at risk of suffering emotional problems, such as anxiety or depression. Of them, it is estimated that 20,000 are in the province of Jaén.”
In this sense, Luis Joaquín García highlighted “the Network’s commitment to not leave any young person behind, paying special attention to minorities (sexual, linguistic, religious or ethnic), refugees, migrants and young people from rural areas.” Finally, he indicated that “for every euro invested in the health and emotional well-being of young people, there is more than 5 euros of return to society as a whole. Investing in young people is doing so in the future of society, as documents expressed by entities such as INJUVE, CJE, ERYICA or the Network itself have shown. For this reason, we hope that public and private entities can join our initiatives and offer its citizens effective tools to reduce the risk of suffering emotional problems in our young people, since there is no future without emotionally healthy and resilient young people.”
The PROEM Network is an umbrella that covers the work carried out by different interdisciplinary research networks granted thanks to the support of the National Plan of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the Ministry of Science and Innovation since 2015. From its beginnings to the present, in which covers the PROEMO Network, it has been made up of both research teams from universities and health foundations in the field of mental health and teams from other fields (Linguistics, Computer Science, Epigenetics, Medicine, Big Data, Physical Education or Health Promotion ).
In turn, the PROEM Network has the collaboration of a large External Advisory Council formed by the Spanish Youth Institute (INJUVE), attached to the Ministry of Children and Youth, the Spanish Youth Council (CJE), the European Agency for Youth Information and Counseling (ERYICA), the Princess of Girona Foundation (FPdGi), the FELGTBI+ Comprehensive Health group, the Confederation of Psychopedagogy and Guidance Organizations of Spain (COPOE), the Spanish Association for Mutual Aid against Social Phobia and Anxiety Disorders (Amtaes), the Andalusian Association of Youth Technicians (AATJ) and the Asturian Association for the care and care of children (Asaci).
Among its most notable milestones is the launch of different projects and initiatives with the aim of helping adolescents who suffer, or are at risk of suffering, emotional problems such as PROCARE, DAREMOS, PROADEMO or Digitas, financed by the State Research Agency .
PROCARE (Selective Prevention through a Transdiagnostic Intervention for Adolescents at Risk for Emotional Problems – PID 2019-111138RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) is the first transdiagnostic selective prevention initiative at the international level that has demonstrated its effectiveness in the intervention of adolescents. at risk (PROCARE+) and at high risk (PROCARE-I) of developing emotional problems such as anxiety or depression. It is currently being implemented in the Jaén municipality of Marmolejo.
For its part, DAREMOS (Detection of Adolescents at High Risk of EMOtional Problems: Exploring the Role of Epigenetics and Language for Prevention Indicated in Mental Health – 1260378) is an interdisciplinary project that aims to improve the early detection of adolescents at high risk of development. of emotional problems. PROCARE and DAREMOS were already awarded in 2022 in the field of Health in the DINAMIA Awards granted by the Provincial Association of Youth Technicians.
Finally, PROADEMO (‘PROMOTING the health and EMOtional well-being of adolescents in the educational, health sector and society’ – PDC2022-133401-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and DIGITAS (10.13039/501100011033) are two initiatives that have The purpose is to offer free tools and resources to enhance the emotional literacy of adolescents and educational and health personnel and workers in the youth sector. Along the same lines, the PROEMO Network ((RED2022-134247-T)) is working on the development of a new roadmap for 2025 to detect deficiencies around the mental health of adolescents and offer recommendations for promoting the emotional well-being of this group.
In addition to the PROEM Network, the 1st Jaenícola Awards awarded a wide range of young people and entities from Jaén in nine other categories: the athlete Alberto González and the boxer Carmen González (Sports), Ana Corazón (Art), the group Vandalia Trío (Music ), the Art Diversia collective (Social Action), the Provincial Association of Youth Technicians ‘Dinamia’ (Associationism), the Almoroje de Siles restaurant (Youth Entrepreneurship), the IES Gil de Zatico de Torreperogil (Sustainable Development), the media communication Cucha! Qué Podcast’ (Content creation and social networks), and the dancer Mario Bermúdez, first local Jaenícolas award, after receiving the Max Award for best male contemporary dance performer.
