Somos Lanzarote has presented a motion to the Cabildo plenary session, which will be held next week, urging the Canary Islands Health Service to launch a psychology service at the José Molina Orosa Hospital in Lanzarote "to address, in collaboration with the other health services, the emotional and psychological dimension of the disease."
As explained by the spokesperson for the transformative formation in the first island institution, Tomás López, "the presence of the psychologist in the hospital setting is increasingly frequent in developed countries, given the importance of psychological aspects in health and disease processes".
In addition, according to Somos Lanzarote, "it is about supporting from the perspective of health psychology the rest of the units and services provided by the Molina Orosa Hospital, attending to the patient and also to their family environment in a comprehensive manner, in both their physical and emotional dimensions." "A service that, given the population weight of Lanzarote and the island status, we should have on the island," the party considers.
"It is known that there are many diseases in which emotional and psychological factors play a fundamental role, so psychology is beginning to occupy a more relevant place in the structures and organization of care in health centers and public hospitals. A service of these characteristics would have a positive impact on aspects such as stress and health in hospitalized patients, intervention in cancer patients, treatment of patients with chronic pain, care for patients with HIV/AIDS infection, or in collaboration with the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), among others," Somos argues.
Psychology in primary care
On the other hand, the motion recalls the "delay" observed in the Canary Islands regarding the implementation of clinical and health psychology services in the field of primary care, thus urging the Government and Parliament of the Canary Islands to legislate, as other territories of the State have already done, "to bring psychological care closer to the basic and initial levels of treatment of health and disease processes."
"Currently, psychological and psychiatric care in the Canary Islands is confined to Mental Health Units. However, their work there is limited, as they usually attend to patients with already advanced pathologies, when the majority of the population suffers from common mental disorders, such as anxiety or depression, which have been treated until now, in general, with psychotropic drugs," they point out from Somos.
Faced with this situation, the party points out that several autonomous communities have already legislated to integrate clinical psychology in the field of primary care, a question that is also claimed for the Canary Islands from Somos Lanzarote.