The Rector of the UJA and the general director of INJUVE present this strategic document that aims to provide basic information to improve the mental health of adolescents and young people and has been developed by this network formed by seven Spanish universities led by the University of Jaén.
6/2/2025.- The Rector of the University of Jaén, Nicolás Ruiz, and the general director of the Youth Institute (INJUVE), of the Ministry of Youth and Children, Margarita Guerrero Calderón, presented this Thursday the Report and Roadmap 2025 of the Network for the Promotion of Health and Emotional Wellbeing of People (PROEMO Network), of which seven universities led by the UJA are part. It is a document at national and international level, which aims to establish a way to improve the mental health of adolescents and young people, “a strategic and reference document that provides basic information on emotional problems, anxiety or depression currently suffered by our adolescents and young people,” explained Nicolas Ruiz.
This Report and Roadmap 2025 includes a diagnosis of the situation, as well as actions and solutions, focusing on certain areas that require urgent intervention and, above all, on the measures that need to be adopted. Areas such as, for example: lack of resources and public policies, unwanted loneliness, lack of awareness towards vulnerable groups and bad digital habits.
“At the University of Jaén we are very concerned about these factors and we try to promote effective measures, based on social innovation and knowledge. We have leading national and international research lines, with great potential for knowledge transfer and, therefore, useful for society, which is ultimately what counts. We are an institution committed to promoting the health and emotional well-being of young people, who make up a large part of the university community. And we are going to continue with this commitment, based on scientific evidence and a multidisciplinary approach, in collaboration with other universities, public institutions and private entities”, explained Nicolás Ruiz, who also announced that he is working on the creation of a chair in mental health, together with the Diputación de Jaén, which will be joined by other institutions.
The Rector of the UJA has stated that the Ministry of Youth and Children and the INJUVE have committed to this network of excellence so that the established roadmap can serve as a strategic document in the next Law on Youth and Intergenerational Justice and also as a basis for the work being carried out within a subcommittee of the Congress of Deputies for the improvement of Mental Health care. “This network is a clear example that collaborative work gives much better results than isolated and fragmented work,” said Nicolás Ruiz.
For her part, the director of INJUVE, Margarita Guerrero, thanked the work done by the Network, highlighting the “key” role of public universities and recognizing the pioneering work done by the UJA in relation to building it, along with six other universities, as well as its participation in the advisory council of the Youth Council of Spain. Likewise, the general director of INJUVE has highlighted the importance of mental health, which she considers that it is necessary to work on just as it is done in the case of physical health. “There are many areas that we still have to work on,” she pointed out, sending a message to young people that in the face of these stigmatizing labels, ”we tell them that mental health matters and that talking about emotional wellbeing is important.” She also referred to the work of INJUVE regarding the emotional wellbeing of young people and adolescents. “In this report and roadmap there are some recommendations on how to approach emotional education from a young age in order to manage, for the better, to better manage the issues that have to do with the episodes that may appear throughout our lives,” he said.
Finally, the coordinator of the PROEM Network, Professor of Psychology at the UJA Luis Joaquín García, pointed out that “the data are devastating, worrying, since they indicate that, nationally, more than 1.5 million young people are at risk or have emotional problems”. “This shows us the importance of early detection. By helping to prevent emotional problems, we help to prevent other issues”. He also stated that “for us, that there is a Ministry of Youth and Infanta is a satisfaction, because it is committed to the emotional health of young people and we are grateful that the proposals collected are rising.”
The PROEMO Network (PROEMO – RED2022-134247-T) has been working for several years on a project that aims to detect the gaps and current needs, as well as to provide recommendations for the improvement of psychological assessment on the mental health of adolescents and young people. Together with the University of Jaén, six other universities are part of it: Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, Universidad de Málaga, Universidad de Almería, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Universidad de Deusto. The PROEMO Network is financed by the State Research Agency of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, through the state program to promote scientific and technical research and its transfer, and has an extensive external advisory board, made up of national and international governmental institutions and third sector organizations, including INJUVE itself.
