26/2/2024.- The team of the University of Jaén (UJA) of the Network for the PROmotion of Health and EMOtional Wellbeing of Young People (PROEMO) and the Princess of Girona Foundation shared the progress of their roadmap and initiatives under the umbrella of the PROEMO Network, in which this entity is integrated in its External Advisory Board as PROCARE, PROADEMO, Digitas and Level Up.
UJA researchers Luis Joaquín García, Lourdes Espinosa, Manuel Vivas and Jesús Sánchez met telematically with Gema Guzmán, Director of Talent Programs, and Sandra Camós, Director of Educational Projects, new interlocutors of the Princess of Girona Foundation within the External Advisory Board of the PROEMO Network.
In this way, Luis Joaquín García explained the keys to PROCARE (‘Selective prevention through a transdiagnostic intervention for adolescents at risk of emotional problems’), a pioneering initiative worldwide in the field of prevention and personalized medicine, since it is the first selective prevention program aimed at adolescents between 12 and 18 years of age at risk of suffering emotional problems. The UJA professor also presented the roadmap of the PROEMO Network, a research network (RED2022-134247-T) funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the State Research Agency. This roadmap, planned for 2025, aims to detect current gaps in the field of child and adolescent mental health, and to provide recommendations for the promotion of health and emotional well-being of young people.
Next, Lourdes Espinosa delved into Digitas, a knowledge transfer project funded by the State Research Agency (Ministry of Science and Innovation) and the European Union “NextGenerationEU”, whose main objective is the dissemination and transfer of scientific knowledge in relation to Social Anxiety Disorder and by extension other emotional problems in adolescents. It is an online tool, equipped with contrasted and evidence-based digital content and resources on social anxiety disorder and by extension other emotional disorders, given the high comorbidity between them.
Manuel Vivas then presented the keys to Level UP (Setting the ground for a multi-level approach on developing soft skills in Higher Education), a European project whose objectives are to provide a new understanding of the transversal skills of higher education students, to develop innovative educational material and tools for transversal skills training and to integrate all the material produced into an applicable framework for transversal skills training.
Finally, Jesús Sánchez emphasized the objectives of the PROADEMO project (‘PROmocionAnDo la salud y el bienestar EMOcional de los adolescentes en el sector educativo, sanitario y la sociedad’), based on the development of useful materials and tools for educational, health and youth information personnel, as well as for adolescents themselves, with the aim of improving the quality of services offered in the field of adolescent emotional wellbeing and increasing emotional literacy.
For their part, the representatives of the Princess of Girona Foundation presented to the UJA team some of the projects that they lead from their organization and with which to establish common synergies. They spoke about programs such as AmplificArte, an educational project that uses music as a transversal discipline and tool to work on the personal development and emotional well-being of young people, while promoting musical culture in schools, social entities and other spaces; Generación Talento, which promotes mentoring for career guidance and skills development; or Generación Docentes, which allows teachers to live an experience of professional development and learning in terms of educational innovation and soft skills;
The Princess of Girona Foundation is part of the External Advisory Board of several projects of the PROEMO Network, together with entities such as the Spanish Youth Institute (INJUVE), attached to the Ministry of Children and Youth, the Spanish Youth Council (CJE), the European Youth Information and Counselling Agency (ERYICA), the Integral Health group of the FELGTBI+, the Confederation of Organizations of Psychopedagogy and Guidance of Spain (COPOE), the Spanish Association of Mutual Help against Social Phobia and Anxiety Disorders (Amtaes), the Andalusian Association of Youth Technicians (AATJ) and the Asturian Association for the attention and care of children (Asaci).