The Lanzarote Health Area, attached to the Canary Islands Health Service (SCS), held a meeting this Wednesday of the Island Council for Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Community Action (CIRPAC) to analyze, among other aspects, the development of the Canary Islands Mental Health Plan on the island.
The meeting, in which the new members of the CIRPAC were introduced, was chaired by the director of the Lanzarote Health Area, Esther Machín; and also participating were the general director of Mental Health and Addictions of the SCS, Fernando Gómez-Pamo; the manager of Health Services of the island's Health Area, Pablo Eguía; the head of the Mental Health Service, José Pereira; and the councilor for Social Welfare and Health of the Island Council, Marciano Acuña.
This working session also included representatives from the town halls and the various organizations involved in the field of mental health in Lanzarote.
During the meeting, participants assessed the status of mental health care resources and devices included in the Island Program for Psychosocial Rehabilitation for Chronically Mentally Ill Patients, as well as the main lines of work and new actions being carried out in the home hospitalization area. They also discussed the proposal for suicide prevention on the island and the protocol for suicide risk in educational institutions.
Furthermore, they addressed the content of the specific programs being developed by the Mental Health unit in Lanzarote, such as the Assertive Community Treatment Team (ETAC), a specialized resource that assists people with severe mental disorders in situations of social isolation, abandonment, with limited access to health resources, or with low adherence to treatment, as well as the First Psychotic Episodes (PEP) plan.
They also reported on the project for the creation of a day hospital, which will support the Psychiatry area of the Doctor José Molina Orosa University Hospital, and the renovation of the Brief Hospitalization unit.
The transfer between islands of mental health patients and the needs raised by the associations completed the topics of discussion at the meeting.
During the course of the meeting, Director Esther Machín pointed out "the importance that these CIRPAC sessions are having, by bringing local administrations and organizations closer to the services and resources available from the SCS in the area of mental health and suicide prevention".
For his part, the manager of Health Services of the Lanzarote Health Area, Pablo Eguía, highlighted "the incorporation in recent months of new psychiatry specialists to the island's Mental Health unit, as well as the improvement of the organization of both the area and the existing multidisciplinary programs and teams, which has had a positive impact on the quality of care, humanization, and the patient-centered approach".