The Primary Care health centers of the Lanzarote Health Area have had the psychology service since this week, after the incorporation of the professionals who will develop their work in Valterra, Costa Teguise, Titerroy and San Bartolomé. This measure is one of the actions planned in the Comprehensive Primary and Community Care Strategy 2022-2023 of the Canary Islands.
From the Ministry of Health they explain that the new psychology consultations, which will take place in morning and afternoon hours, aim to "respond to common mental disorders whose prevalence has been increasing during the pandemic in both the adult population and among young people, and make psychological treatments accessible at the first level of care." Thus, compliance with one of the main objectives of multidisciplinary Primary Care is guaranteed: "the promotion of health and the prevention of disease."
The medical director of Primary Care, Aniuska Sutil, emphasizes that the incorporation of psychologists into health centers "is essential to provide early and effective care to patients who come daily to consultations with emotional problems related to stress and anxiety and prevent their worsening."
Reduce medicalization and prevent chronicity
This new service performs the approach and monitoring of patients with mild mental disorders, trying to improve their ability to cope with everyday problems and reduce medicalization in functional emotional processes and avoid, on the other hand, chronicity.
Together with the Primary Care teams, the psychology consultations will play a relevant role in the prevention and promotion of mental disorders and mental health, as well as in the treatment and monitoring of patients in the family and community settings, avoiding referral to other care levels.
This new service, on the other hand, tries to optimize interventions aimed at the identification and prevention of suicidal behaviors and must refer cases of Severe Mental Disorder to the Mental Health unit of Specialized Care.
