The event was chaired by the Secretary of State for Youth and Children, Rubén Pérez, and was attended by more than 350 participants, both in person and online.
23/05/2024.- The teams that make up the PROEMO Network (RED2022-134247-T /MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) presented the results of different initiatives and projects on the promotion of the health and emotional well-being of young people, in the framework of a day of knowledge transfer, organized at the Centro Cultural La Térmica in Málaga.
The opening session was chaired by the Secretary of State for Youth and Children, Rubén Pérez, who mentioned that “mental health issues permeate absolutely everything in a generation and we are called upon to be responsible for solving them”. He also pointed out that at an institutional level “we are concerned about all the conditioning factors of the mental health of young people, such as housing, their emancipation options in a country where barely 16 percent of those under 29 years of age can start their life project, as well as the regulation of the impact of digital environments on this sector of the population”.
Together with him, participated in the inauguration the Vice Chancellor of Research and Knowledge Transfer of the UJA, Mª Victoria López, who valued the impact of initiatives such as PROCARE and PROADEMO and the PROEMO Network, with pioneering lines of research worldwide and with a wide impact on the transfer of knowledge generated in the citizenship of the province of Jaén and even nationally. He also highlighted “the commitment of the UJA as an institution for the promotion of health and emotional well-being of young people who make up a good part of the university community”.
Also taking part in the start of the day were the MEP of the S&D group, Estrella Durá, the Director General of the Andalusian Youth Institute, Pedro A. Ramírez, and the Professor of Psychology at the UJA and head of the PROEMO Network, Luis Joaquín García.
This was followed by the final dissemination of the 2021-2024 experiences of the PROCARE initiative, launched by the University of Jaén, the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, the University of Elche and the University of Miami (USA). Luis Joaquín García pointed out that “the results indicate the drastic reduction of emotional problems, the improvement of the subjective quality of life and the greater regulation of emotions among the young participants, and the benefit for their families”. He was joined by University of Miami researcher Jill Ehrenreich-May, who spoke online, who explained the keys to the PROCARE protocol. Then, the results obtained in its implementation in the Balearic Islands in 2023, and currently, on the one hand, in the municipality of Marmolejo, with the intervention of the Councillor for Governance, Tourism, Promotion and Youth of the City Council Marmolejeño, Pilar Lara, and on the other at the provincial level through the Provincial Council of Jaén, with the intervention of the Deputy for Equality and Youth, Maria Dolores Ruiz.
Likewise, the beta materials generated around the PROADEMO project were presented to provide tools and resources to professionals in education, health and youth with the presentation of UJA researchers Luis Joaquín García, José Antonio Muela, Lourdes Espinosa, Manuel Vivas, David Jiménez, Jesús Sánchez, Álvaro Muela and Adelina Ocaña.
At the same time, the results and initiatives of the PROEMO Network for the promotion of the health and emotional well-being of adolescents were disseminated. First, the PROEMO Network itself, led by the UJA, which aims to draw up a roadmap to identify gaps and propose recommendations in this area. Then, researchers from the Miguel Hernández University, José Antonio Piqueras and Victoria Soto presented the results of the COVITALIDAD project; the researcher from the Rovira i Virgili University, Josefa Canals, spoke about the epidemiology of emotional problems in young people in Spain through her research work; researchers from the University of Almeria, Inmaculada Gómez, and from the University of Seville, Juan Miguel Flujas presented an intervention protocol for young people and their families with and without ICTs; researchers from the Autonomous University of Madrid, Manuel Gámez, and from the University of the Basque Country, Estíbaliz Mateos developed their work on sexual abuse in images and the phenomenon of self-harm on the Internet; researchers from the University of Deusto, Esther Calvete and Izaskun Orue, delved into intelligent interventions to improve the quality of life and health of adolescents; UJA researcher Lourdes Espinosa showed resources for prevention in the field of mental health framed in the DIGITAS project, which brings together audiovisual tools (podcasts, documentaries, short videos…) to address the emotional problems of young people; and researchers from the University of Malaga, Patricia Moreno and Sonia Conejo, showed the keys to PREVANS, a free mobile application to prevent anxiety in young people, which is a free mobile application to prevent anxiety in young adults, in collaboration with the Biomedical Research Institute of Malaga and Platform in Nanomedicine.
In addition, the entities of the External Advisory Council of the PROEMO Network shared with the audience informative pills of each of them, related to the promotion of health and emotional well-being of young people. At this table intervened the 2nd vice president and responsible for the socio-economic and communication areas of the Youth Council of Spain, Juan Antonio Baez; the head of Integral Health of the FELGTBI+, Toni Marti; the president of the Confederation of Organizations of Psychopedagogy and Guidance of Spain (COPOE), Ana Cobos; the vice-president of the Andalusian Association of Youth Professionals, Antonio Lara, the president of the Spanish Association of Mutual Help against Social Phobia and Anxiety Disorders (AMTAES), Enrique Vargas, the psychologists of the Asturian Association for the Attention and Care of Children (ASACI): Ana María Sainero and María Fé Martínez; the Head of Service of Interministerial Programs of the Spanish Youth Institute (INJUVE), Victoria Rodríguez; ERYICA and the Princess of Girona Foundation.
Precisely, the General Director of INJUVE, Margarita Guerrero was in charge of the closing ceremony and emphasized “the importance of working in a priority area for young people such as mental health from scientific evidence, because mental health matters and has to be taken care of”. He also pointed out the relevance of the work of the PROEMO Network due to its “multidisciplinary approach, which brings together experiences from all over the country on an emerging and central issue such as the emotional wellbeing of adolescents”.
The conference was attended by more than 350 participants, both in person and online, from different geographical areas of Spain and from all kinds of professional fields, especially those related to research, education, health and youth.
