INTERVENTIONS TO PROMOTE MENTAL HEALTH AND EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS IN EDUCATIONAL CONTEXTS AND AT RISK OF SOCIAL EXCLUSION

Abstract

The promotion of mental health and the prevention of mental disorders in the young and adolescent population is a priority in public health policies, due to the increase in cases of mental disorders, the poor early diagnosis and the delay in seeking help in this population. In the last two decades, international organizations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Union, have been stressing the importance of creating mental health literacy programs, socio-emotional competence development programs and emotional attention programs to reduce the negative impact that causes mental disorders in this population. And in the importance of working together and in a coordinated way between the different services (educational, mental health and community health) to provide the best mental health care in this population. Les Corts Mental Hygiene Center (CHMLC) in 2010 created the program “EspaiJove.net: a mental health space”, a program for the prevention of mental disorders in the young population that includes: a) universal prevention: adolescents in the educational field; b) selective prevention: vulnerable adolescents who live in a Residential Center for Educational Attention (CRAE) or Reception Center (CA); c) Prevention indicated: vulnerable adolescents and families with functional and relationship difficulties. And the “Support and Emotional Attention” program aimed at children in primary school. The main objective of this symposium is to describe the four programs for the prevention of mental disorders in children and adolescents who are schooled and vulnerable, which is being carried out by the CHMLC in Barcelona, Spain.

Rocío Casañas is a Psychologist from the Research Department of the Les Corts Mental Hygiene Center Association of Barcelona since 2007. She is a Professor at the School of Nursing of the Sea (ESIM), a school affiliated with the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) in Barcelona from 2016. She is a collaborating professor of the course: “Promotion of health in childhood and adolescence” of the University Master’s Degree in Child and Adolescent Psychology: Techniques and Intervention Strategies at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) since 2018. In 2016 she defended her doctoral thesis on the “Evaluation of the effectiveness of group psychoeducation in Major Depression (mild / moderate symptoms) in Primary Care” in the Doctoral Program in Psychiatry and Medical Psychology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). Rocío Casañas holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health at the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) – Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) (2013-2015). She also holds the recognition of General Health Psychologist from the Department of Health of the Generalitat de Catalunya (2014) and she graduated in Nursing from the University School of Nursing and Physiotherapy Blanquerna, Universitat Ramon Llull (URLL) (1995-1998). Rocío Casañas collaborates as a researcher in the Group of Severe Mental Disorders (TMS Group), which focuses on the study of patients affected by severe mental disorders. This concept includes several mental disorders: schizophrenic, bipolar, schizoaffective, compulsive obsessive, delusional, schizotypal, other non-organic psychotic disorders, severe depressive episodes with psychotic symptoms and recurrent severe depressive disorders. Rocío Casañas currently collaborates in many research projects. Some of them are: “Evaluation of the effectiveness of a mental health alphabetization program “EspaiJove.net” in the reduction of stigma and the increase of aid in the adolescent school population” and “Evaluation of a psychoeducational group intervention carried out by primary care nurses in patients with depression and physical comorbidity”.