The Barcelona Provincial Council will bring actions related to the prevention and addressing of mental health problems closer to the local level, convinced that the environment closest to citizens – the municipalities – is ideal for addressing this problem.
The Provincial Council’s Strategic Mental Health Plan has just been defined, it will be launched this year through various pilot actions and will be fully deployed during the period 2025-2027, with the idea of promoting mental health, facilitating detection , improve the quality of life of patients and support the 311 municipalities in the province.
The initiative responds to the major deficiencies that mental health indicators denote. “It is a huge problem. one in four people has, has had or will have a disorder related to mental health,” explained Gemma Tarafa, Public Health Deputy of the Barcelona Provincial Council.
The Provincial Council invests 6.8 million euros in mental health this year, and will allocate 7.6 million in 2025
“Cases of depression and anxiety have increased between 25 and 30% after Covid, and during the pandemic, consultations for anxiety grew by 125%,” he explained.
The young, adolescent and young adult population is of particular concern, according to Tarafa. In this sense, he has argued that any disorder that can be detected and treated before the age of 18 will prevent entry into the health system and, consequently, will contribute to its decongestion.
The project consists of four strategic lines (prevention; early detection, psychological and community support; respect for the rights of people with mental health problems, and constitution of a local mental health network), 13 specific objectives and 61 actions, the half of which are already being carried out and the rest will be applied in the short and medium term.
The Provincial Council will invest 6.8 million euros this year in the definition, preliminary issues and implementation of the project and estimates that it will allocate 7.6 million euros in 2025.
Presentation of the Provincial Mental Health Strategic Plan
In Tarafa’s opinion, the local world plays a relevant role: “Improving mental health requires action on the closest environments where people’s daily lives and their social relationships and ties take place, that is, the municipalities, with the implementation of all agents and services in a transversal manner (social, health, cultural, sports, labor, etc.)”.
The new services will be initially implemented in municipalities selected for their varied typology (Terrassa, Mataró, Vilafranca, Manresa, El Prat, Igualada and a group of small towns on the C-17 axis) in order to evaluate their operation before extending them to all regions of Barcelona.
The situation is not the same in a neighborhood of l’Hospitalet, for example, as in a town in Berguedà. “We must take into account the differential needs of each municipality, of each neighborhood, as well as the possible inequalities in relation to mental health, to respond to the real needs of citizens from proximity and respect to people, especially the most vulnerable,” argued Pilar Solanes, commissioner of the plan.
The project is very transversal: it involves 7 of the 13 areas of the Barcelona Provincial Council
The first strategic line (prevention) plans to promote training in well-being and protection in municipal schools, as well as the creation of a commission on the proper use of screens.
The second (early detection and support) includes measures such as the creation of the Konsulta’m service, an anonymous chat attended by mental health experts for adolescents and young people, available 24 hours a day. Likewise, there is personalized or group care for people who have had suicidal ideations and suicide survivors. A first aid program for mental health prevention is also proposed for city councils.
The third line (respect for the rights of people with mental health problems) affects access to work, education or housing, as well as the promotion of civic and cultural participation.
Section four goes through the organization and promotion of the strategic plan, its monitoring and its adaptation to the needs of each territory. In this sense, the local technical network for mental health and emotional well-being will soon be created in the pilot areas.
Based on the results of the application of the project in the initially selected populations, the Provincial Council will incorporate the Strategic Mental Health Plan into its catalog of services for the 311 municipalities of the district.
“We want to universalize the service and, above all, do it in an articulated manner with other administrations. We propose complementary measures and, going hand in hand, we all add up,” said Tarafa.
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