Mental health is already part of the public agenda. The latest known cases of suicides -a former soccer player or two Sallent twins- have focused on a growing problem that forces governments to act and take measures. The Generalitat commissioner for the Valencian Mental Health Action Plan, Rafael Tabarés, explained yesterday in a meeting with the media that in recent years there has been an increase in self-harm among children, young people and adolescents and attempts to suicide.
However, in the Valencian Community, Tabarés clarified, this increase in suicidal ideation that is being recorded "has not translated into more deaths in the Valencian Community" among young people between 10 and 29 years of age.
The psychiatrist and psychotherapist explained that this is a key moment, taking advantage of the fact that mental health has gone "from marginality to centrality" to take the appropriate measures to avoid an increase in deaths.
For this reason, he commented on the rush of the Generaltiat Valenciana to implement the measures that have been announced. Thus, before the end of March, they want the rapid response unit to be operational to prevent suicides among students, which should serve for teachers to have direct communication with health professionals (psychiatrists and child and adolescent psychologists) to be able to discern cases more worrisome. One of the teachers' complaints was the difficulty in attending to and appreciating the severity of some symptoms.
A decree is also waiting to be signed for the creation of a Work Table where all the ministries involved, associations, professional entities, unions, companies, municipalities and even representatives of the State Administration will be present to coordinate measures.
During his speech, the commissioner insisted time and time again on the need to improve coordination, but also to provide more resources for prevention. Tabarés claimed that, as has already happened in other countries such as New Zealand, mental health becomes a priority and transversal policy. All this, in order to prevent all these symptomatic increases in self-harm and suicidal behavior from ending up resulting in an undesired end.
Therefore, he insisted on the need to face reality and offer help to people who need it. In fact, he recalled the existence of a free telephone number for the Ministry of Health (024), for Attention to Suicidal Behavior, where anyone who may be going through a bad time can call for advice.
Tabarés took advantage of the conversation to break down some data on the problem, such as the fact that the vast majority of mental health problems occur within families and, in the case of adolescents, are marked by causes of affective ruptures.
On a day as marked as 8M, the Commissioner of the Presidency for Mental Health recalled figures from macro-encounters on gender violence that indicate that one in two women over the age of 15 have suffered some type of violence for the simple fact of being a woman , with the risk factor that this entails for them. However, he also made it clear that in Spain, the majority of men choose to take their own lives.
