Mental health care: the Government’s strategy

He Government reaffirms its interdisciplinary health care strategy mental health. With the Ministry of Health and its specific Commissioner as matrices, in Moncloa they demand measures focused on improving psychosocial factors such as salary, dependency and housing when it comes to having an ecosystem that replaces the consumption of drugs as the main tool against psychological problems.

Moncloa details its inter-ministerial initiatives in favor of mental health in a wide-ranging parliamentary response to a written question recorded by the Popular Group in Congresswhich requested information about these measures following statements by the Minister of Health, Monica Garciaabout the fact that “social problems are not solved with medication.”

Firstly, the Executive mentions its desire to reduce inequalities of the National Health System (SNS) through “specific” or “cross-cutting” tools such as “the incorporation of equity projects in access to health technology or equipment.”

Reference is also made to the SNS Equity and Cohesion Bill, sent to the Congress for processing, in which there is a regulatory modification to incorporate a new section on the impact on health and its determinants: “It will apply to sectoral regulations that affect the following determinants of health: health, housing, education, environment, transportation, territorial planning, occupational health, agriculture, food production and animal and plant health.

Added to this are initiatives that address “the social problems of citizens” through other ministries such as the Ministry of Social Rights, which coordinates the National Strategy for the Prevention and Fight against Poverty and Social Exclusion 2019-2023, extended this year until the new strategy for the period 2024-20230 is approved.

This plan includes three “strategic objectives.” The first is to “provide a guarantee of income”, among whose measures the “creation and constant improvement of the Minimum Living Income”, the increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI), which in 2024 amounted to 1,134 euros after increasing by 5 percent compared to 2023; the future “universal parenting benefit” of 200 euros per month per child until the child reaches the age of majority, and other “social measures” such as VAT reductions on basic foods and the Royal Decree-Laws to extend measures against inflation.

The second objective is to prevent poverty by “investing in education and employment” with measures adopted, mainly, by the departments of Education and Vocational Training, and Job and Social Economy “guaranteeing inclusive education with improvements in study scholarships, for example, and adopting measures that improve the labor market.”

Finally, reference is made to “social protection against life cycle risks” with “dependency care, social services, health and housing services,” among others. In that line, the Ministry of Social Rights In July, it proposed the distribution of 783.2 million euros to finance “the agreed level” of the System for Autonomy and Dependency Care, manages 198.7 million euros in 2024 for basic social service benefits, and called for subsidies for 65.5 million euros from the European Social Fund+ to finance social innovation projects to “protect children and adolescents at risk or helplessness.”

“These highlighted measures do not include all those developed by the Government, but they are examples of actions that aim to maintain the social shield and protect families, workers, pensioners and most vulnerable groups”, highlights Moncloa.

Housing as a social determinant of health

In fact, in response to another question from the Popular Group about measures planned to comply with the idea raised by the Minister of Health of pursuing illegal tourist apartments “forming a affordable public rental network”, the Government recalls: “The Ministry of Health indicates that the importance of housing as one of the social determinants of health has already been expressed on several occasions.”

This other text details the different initiatives launched by various ministries such as Industry and Tourismand Housing and Urban Agendain terms of housing. Among the measures are preparing a registry of housing for tourist use, requiring the companies that manage them to share their movements with greater transparency, monitoring violations of current regulations together with the autonomous communities, expanding the supply of rental housing through of the State Plan for Access to Housing 2022-2025and build social rental housing through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.

Mónica García has repeatedly advocated for regulate rental prices to put a stop to one of the psychosocial factors that harm mental health, especially in the younger population.

In May, the Government announced a guide of measures to monitor the mental health of workers exposed to psychosocial risks. In that framework, the Mental Health Commissioner It stands as a cornerstone for García’s department when it comes to promoting strategies focused on the psychological well-being of health professionals and other workers.