The Parliament of the Canary Islands premiered this September 10th a new installment of the institutional videopodcast Open Parliament, coinciding with the International Day for Suicide Prevention. This edition focused on reflecting and debating on the mental health of children and youth in the Islands, a growing concern for both families and institutions.
The president of the Parliament, Astrid Pérez, pointed out that "our Parliament could not miss the opportunity to debate and contribute our grain of sand to a problem that worries us a lot, such as the mental health of our society in general, and of our children and young people in particular."
During the videopodcast, experts from different fields addressed issues such as the impact of bullying, the pressure of social networks, the increase in diagnoses of disorders such as ADHD or ASD, as well as the worrying upward trend of suicide attempts among minors. Pérez stressed that "suicide attempts among children in the Canary Islands have tripled in the last five years, a figure that forces us to act urgently."
Fernando Gómez-Pamo Guerra del Río, general director of Mental Health and Addictions of the Government of the Canary Islands, highlighted that "more and more addiction care units are seeing more cases of minors addicted to new technologies, pornography and online games." Marcos Val, police officer and tutor specialized in minors and bullying, assured that society "is unaware of the dangerous communities of adults who are in video game chats or on TikTok to capture connected minors."
Miquel Tomé, vice president of the Canary Mental Health Federation, Marian Álvarez, president of the Federation of AMPAs of Gran Canaria, and Dr. Manuel Ajoy, child and adolescent psychiatrist and coordinator of the mental health unit of the General Hospital of Fuerteventura, also participated in the debate.
The president of the Parliament concluded by highlighting that "child and youth mental health is not only a political or health challenge, but, above all, a social challenge that we must face together."
