PSOE and Compromis call for plenary approval of a Municipal Mental Health Plan

council members Rafa Mas of Compromis and Lara López of PSOE they held a meeting in ADIEM Foundation Handling, presenting and accepting the statement as communicated by the Valencia formation.

In line with this, mayor Rafa Mas said, ” Mental health is a challenge in today’s society and should be a priority in the health policies of the municipal administration team. That’s why we offer an initiative to set up the Local Health Council and create a municipal mental health plan with three main goals: mental health prevention, promotion and care for people with mental health problems and their families, highlighting the most vulnerable. groups such as children, adolescents, or people without resources. Until now, mental health has not been a priority for this municipality, but we must address this issue urgently as society demands it.”

For socialist councilor Lara López, “we believe the city council has tremendous competence in working for social awareness in mental health. Choosing to eliminate and avoid stigmas related to mental health is conducive to improving the society of the future. The initiative to create a municipal mental health plan is already being managed in many municipalities, which supports this group’s self-relocation in all areas, especially social and labor”.

Institutional disclosure provides data on the importance of dealing with mental health. world Health Organization (WHO) comes to the conclusion One in four people will experience a mental health problem in their lifetime. Three million people in Spain diagnosed with medical depression (6.68% of the population according to the INE). In addition, the data reflect a clear gender effect; women show twice the prevalence of major depressive episodes (9%) compared to men (4%). In the case of the prevalence of suicide in Spain, it is 7.9 deaths per hundred thousand people, making it the first external cause of death at 3,539 deaths per year (twice traffic accidents than we are worried about). This is the stage where more cases are seen from the age of 65 (almost half). In this already bad situation, these numbers skyrocketed with the pandemic and the resulting economic crisis.

this CIS In February 2021, such alarming data showed that 11.7% of Hispanics suffered the death of a close relative, 15% had anxiety attacks, 11% felt hopeless, 35% cried frequently, 6.4% saw a mental health professional, and 5.8% took antidepressants. The UN itself raised on 14 May 2020 the need to take special measures to take care of mental health in the context of the rise in suicide and drug use. The annual cost of a patient with depression is estimated to be 235 Euros. But the greatest danger of depression is that it is a precursor to the possibility of suicide.

faced with this data mental health problems remain a taboo subject in the social and political sphere, They rarely get media coverage, Compromís reports.

For all these reasons, the general purpose of the declaration is: Alicante City Council prepares a Municipal Mental Health Plan and convenes the municipal health council It was proposed in the Subcommittee on Health Prevention and Social Coexistence, established within the framework of the Commission for Recovery Against Covid-19, where 20 measures were decided, including the creation of this council. In this way, the current situation and a prevention and response plan for the most vulnerable groups are analyzed.

Compromis explains that the plan should address: the need to raise public awareness of the seriousness of the problem, paying special attention to the most vulnerable segments of the population such as people suffering from covid-19, the elderly, infants, adolescents, socio-health personnel or people with previous mental health pathologies.

In conclusion, PSOE and Compromis’ statement, To promote public awareness and awareness policies in the field of mental health, It is the need for people with mental disorders to act against social discrimination and to intervene early, effectively and efficiently before disruptive behavior occurs.

Moreover promoting municipal care programs for people affected by mental health problems through the creation of social support groups coordinated by experts to assist the patient and alleviate the family burden of long-term ailments. Concluding support agreements with the city’s social representatives in this area, and the adoption by the Alicante City Council of the guide for the media, which includes recommendations on mental health and the use of the guide, are the measures announced by Compromís.