Tuesday, October 8, 2024, 3:06 p.m.
Families with mentally ill people will have new facilities at the Virgen de la Caridad health center, better known as Parchís, to be cared for. Starting next year, work on this new space will begin. The Ministry of Health has the machinery already in place to make this demand a reality, and thus “unfold” the services it now provides on Real Street in the old Primary Care Management building.
The intention is to improve care for these patients. The drafting of the project is almost finished and the tender for the works will be issued shortly, so that work can begin in 2025 in order to adapt the building and open later, as sources from the Autonomous Community explained to LA VERDAD.
This initiative is part of the mental health strategy launched by the regional Government, to address the increase in demand for mental health assistance after the pandemic, according to sources from the Murcian Health Service (SMS). The new offices will have the same services available in the current center located in front of the Faculty of Business Sciences of the UPCT. The patients will be those from the basic health areas near the medical center.
This announcement comes the same day that the president of the Autonomous Community, Fernando López Miras, visited the new consultations of the Addictive Behaviors Unit (UCA) of the General Directorate of Mental Health in Cartagena. He was accompanied by the Minister of Health, Juan José Pedreño, and the mayor, Noelia Arroyo.
Nine queries
The new facilities are located on the ground floor of the Public Health building, in the space where the old Nursing School was. Of the nine offices enabled, four are for psychiatrists, two for clinical psychologists, two for nursing and one for a social worker. There is also a multifunction room for groups and meetings, and also waiting rooms.
The start-up, starting this Wednesday, resolves the need for facilities for Mental Health in Area II of Cartagena, will improve the care provided to patients and will facilitate the daily activity of professionals in this service. To date, this care was provided at the Mental Health Center on Real Street, so the new facilities also free up space and resources in said center. The investment amounts to 133,000 euros, coming from the National Mental Health Plan.
López Miras highlighted that the consultations “will improve care for patients with addictions,” who will receive “comprehensive assistance.” In addition, he explained that »the working conditions of professionals will also improve, since they will have more space and facilities fully adapted to carry out this important work«.
A campaign to improve care among young people
A mobile unit from the Ministry of Health will tour the 45 municipalities of the Region with the ‘Shout!’ campaign, for the prevention of suicide among young people, on the occasion of the celebration next Thursday, October 10, of World Health Day. Mental Health. The regional president, Fernando López Miras, visited the unit, located yesterday in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento of Cartagena.
With it, he indicated “we seek to raise awareness among young people between 14 and 18 years old about the importance of mental health.” “We want to banish taboos, and that as soon as they feel bad, they can break their silence and ask for help,” he said.
This initiative is especially focused on suicide prevention and is developed by the Foundation for Health Training and Research (FFIS). It was designed based on the ideas and concerns that arose from collaboration with several work groups made up of adolescents and young people with and without mental health problems.
López Miras stressed that from the Government of the Region of Murcia “we continue working for mental health” and advanced that “the project for the second mental health center in Cartagena, in El Parchís, has already been awarded and we are developing the Improvement Strategy of Mental Health of the Region of Murcia until 2026, with a budget of 41 million euros. “We reaffirm our commitment to this problem, which is aggravated by addictions.”