Valencia (EFE).- The Valencian Community will train health professionals to reinforce the detection and treatment of depression and act from the first indicators of threat of suicidal behaviour, thus joining the “European Alliance against Depression”.
This international initiative has already been tested in more than 120 regions of 15 countries inside and outside the European Union, and together with the Valencian Community, Catalonia, Galicia and Andalusia participate in it, as explained by the Generalitat commissioner for the Valencian Plan of Action in Mental Health, Rafael Tabarés.
In the Valencian Community, specific training will be given to professionals who work in both primary care and specialized care, specifically, family medicine, paediatrics, psychiatry, nursing or teams from Addictive Behavior Units, reports the Generalitat.
Tabarés defends how it is “fundamental” to act in the face of the relationship between depression and suicide, as well as to evaluate the risks associated with the consumption of addictive substances and give the necessary tools to health personnel for early detection and prevention.
The initiative, he explains, “has a voluntary nature, and it is the professionals and centers themselves who are progressively joining.”
It starts in the Marítimo district of Valencia
The training has already started in four Basic Health Zones of the Maritime district of Valencia, belonging to the Malvarrosa Clinical Department and serving a population of approximately 80,000 inhabitants, but the objective is to cover the entire territory of the Valencian Community.
The initiative developed by the Generalitat within the framework of this European plan focuses on the most vulnerable population groups, including the adolescent and youth population.
The commissioner of the Mental Health Council has warned that suicide is one of the “major public health problems worldwide, but it is possible to avoid it and for this prevention is key.”
With this initiative, he points out, he wants to “sensitize” the public and create a trend “that looks into the eyes of people who are at risk of suicide, their relatives, their companions and we can tell them clearly that we are with them , that we want to help and accompany them and that we want to build a path of hope.
To do this, he adds, “a national strategy to prevent these suicidal behaviors is essential.”
Thus, he recalled that the free telephone number of the Ministry of Health 024, for Attention to Suicidal Behavior, works 24 hours a day connected to the regional services and also attends to relatives and relatives.
Tabarés also highlighted the implementation of the Mental Health, Drug Addiction and Addictive Behaviors Action Plan, with which the Consell aims to “put issues related to mental health at the center of its management agenda, knowing that these issues are on the citizen agenda.
