The Minister of Territorial Policy, Territorial Cohesion and Water of the Government of the Canary Islands, Manuel Miranda, inaugurated this Tuesday morning a training course on Suicide Prevention and emergency care, aimed at 80 professionals who work in the different security and emergency services of the islands.
The objective of this course is to train personnel in psychological first aid, communication of bad news, as well as in the prevention and intervention in suicidal behaviors, taking into account that the Canary Islands is the third region in Spain, only behind Asturias and Galicia, with the highest suicide rate.
In this sense, Manuel Miranda stressed that "this type of training is of paramount importance to us since it is necessary to adopt prevention measures to try to alleviate this situation with more information." "Therefore," he added, "this type of training is essential so that professionals who deal with this type of situation have the best possible preparation."
As an example of the seriousness of this situation, the speaker of these days, Pedro Martín-Barrajón, director of the Emergency Area and of the National Network of Psychologists for Suicide Prevention, assured that during the year 2022, 233 people committed suicide in the Canary Islands, of which 180 were men and 53 women. He recalled that in Spain there were 4,227 suicides in 2022, which, as he detailed, "means 11 deaths every day, 1 death every two and a quarter hours and, at least, one attempt every seven and a half minutes."
With the aim of learning to face these situations with the best possible tools, the expert shared with professionals from the different security and emergency services on the islands "guidelines and protocols to short-circuit" the suicidal idea that a person has on the other end of the phone and thus "gain time for them to try to rescue things that are important to live a life that is worth living."
The training activity, which also included the presence of the managing director of Health and Safety Services Management in the Canary Islands (GSC), Luis Cabrera, and the director of the Coordinating Center for Emergencies and Security (CECOES) 112, Moisés Sánchez, takes place today, Tuesday, May 14, in the morning and afternoon, in the Assembly Hall of the headquarters of the General Directorate of Studies, Training and Research in Public Security (DGEFISP), in Tenerife, and next Thursday, the 16th, at the headquarters of this same institution in Gran Canaria.
This course is organized by CECOES 112 within the program of training activities that the public company Health and Safety Services Management in the Canary Islands (GSC) contemplates for this year.
Speaker
Since his participation in 2008 in the care of the families of the victims of the Spanair plane crash, Pedro Martín-Barrajón has been dedicated to training as an emergency psychologist. He began his activity in SAMUR-PC as head of the Emergency Unit of the Ministry of Health, and also formed part of the General Council of Psychology in COVID19 Crisis, in telephone intervention in suicidal crises.
Martín-Barrajón has developed his work as an out-of-hospital emergency psychologist in the Social Emergency Care service (ASEM), as a predecessor service to the newly created psychological emergency care service of SUMMA112, as well as for different insurance companies and other private companies.
The exercise of emergency psychology led him to the coordination of a National Network of Psychologists specialized in suicide, which has more than 340 professionals spread throughout the national territory, a task he performed until 2018, as well as to act as director of Crisis and Emergency Management of the care plan for victims of railway accidents and their families.
The front of this national network provided psychological care in the railway accident at the Francia Station and to the more than 150 people affected after the attack on Las Ramblas in Barcelona 2017.
Throughout his professional career, he has given training related to this field to personnel from multiple institutions and services related to the field of emergencies such as SAMUR, the General Directorate of Civil Protection and Emergencies, the governments of the Basque Country, Aragon or the Generalitat Valenciana and numerous colleges of psychologists in the Spanish territory, among many other companies.
