Oviedo (EFE).- The new Mental Health Plan 2023-2030 establishes a budget of 62 million euros for the implementation of measures that pay special attention to young and old and that will increase the number of professionals in the health network and build new infrastructures in Gijón, Cangas del Narcea and Langreo.
The text, approved this Friday by the Governing Council, includes more than 240 actions and details objectives and recommendations to improve care, strengthen individual and collective resilience and promote a comprehensive and community care model.
In addition, it seeks to promote the recovery and social inclusion of patients, as well as reduce the risks and stigma associated with pathologies and disorders that affect emotional, psychological and social well-being.
Three new equipment
The text, presented by the general director of Public Health, Lidia Clara Rodríguez, foresees the construction of a large facility in Gijón that will bring together various services related to mental health, including the teaching unit, in the vicinity of the Cabueñes Hospital.
The works will have a budget of 14.6 million euros and will begin next year with the aim of concluding in 2028.
Likewise, another mental health center will be built in Cangas del Narcea, in the vicinity of the hospital, work that will begin this year with an item of 3.2 million and that will culminate in 2026.
On the other hand, Riaño will have other new equipment that, with 6 million, will begin to be built in 2025 until 2029.
Increase of professionals
The plan, with a budget of one million euros this year and organized into three strategic areas that frame the objectives and specific actions, includes increasing the number of professionals in the health network with 38 psychologists and 27 more psychiatrists.
As explained by the head of service of the Coordination Unit of the Mental Health Framework Program (Ucosam), Ángel López, there are currently 120 psychiatrists and 93 clinical psychologists and work is being done with the intention that the Primary network has more psychologists.
“Elementary is essential. If it is not capable of facing this type of mental health demand, the rest will not be able to do it either”, he pointed out after stressing that the Principality has a “very reasonable” rate of professionals in this area.
Plan focused on young and old
The new plan focuses on children and young people, given the “growing discomfort” that is observed among this group, with actions such as a guide for the prevention, detection and intervention in the face of suicidal behavior in the school environment and the implementation of a protocol against bullying in the classroom.
It also has measures aimed at the elderly, and women are “other large groups of importance” that it attends to, as well as vulnerable groups.
“It is an extensive plan to all of Asturias. It covers the whole of the citizenry and not only people who suffer from a mental illness”, said, for his part, the head of the Population Health service, José María Blanco, who stressed that the plan has been prepared with a broad process participatory.
The text will now be sent to the General Meeting so that the groups may request appearances and submit resolution proposals to incorporate them into the plan, although, on this occasion and due to the imminent dissolution of the Chamber, there will not be time to complete their processing, so the document should be sent back to parliament the next legislature.
However, the general director of Public Health has specified that the program is already “working” since the beginning of the year. “It is an ambitious plan and it is attached to the Asturian reality”, she has pointed out. EFE