Early detection psychologists help 1,400 Alicante students facing mental health.
Photo Credit: Vitaly Gariev / Unsplash
The province of Alicante is placing a special focus on the mental health of young residents, and more than a thousand students have already benefited from an initiative by the professionals at the Early Detection Units. In the province, 1,435 students from educational centres have been attended to, and across the Valencian Community as a whole, the units have intervened in 3,305 cases.
Essential interventions to help the mental health of Valencia students
The Early Detection Units place a special focus on mental health-related interventions in order to provide students, particularly children and adolescents, with resources in their school environments. Currently, the Valencian Community is the only autonomous community in Spain that offers this service in all health departments and all schools, carried out by professionals from the public health system. More than 60 psychologists participate in 23 total units from the Ministry of Health.
According to officials from the Valencian Community, the model responds to the need to act before children’s mental health problems worsen, and that early detection is one of the most effective ways to prevent the problems from becoming chronic. They stress that timely mental health interventions could be enough to completely change the trajectory of a child’s life.
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Eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, and trauma are addressed in the initiative
To be specific, the interventions help children suffering from suicidal thoughts or self-harm; intense emotional symptoms; behavioural issues; anxiety and related symptoms; neurodevelopmental disorders; stress; traumatic situations; general crises; problems of coexistence, bullying, or school violence; difficulties in social relationships; absenteeism; eating disorders or suspicion thereof; and many other mental health-related situations.
The importance of these interventions by mental health professionals in the province of Alicante cannot be overstated; listening to the child, detecting early warning signs, and acting in time could end up saving the child’s life. The initiative also helps to support children’s families during times of mental distress, and give them the tools to help their child communicate their needs and recover.
