The Youth Area of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, in collaboration with the management of the Island Health Area, has launched a novel free psychological support service aimed at young people between 14 and 30 years old, from the seven municipalities of Lanzarote.
Precisely this Thursday, coinciding with World Mental Health Day, the Councilor for Youth, Aroa Revelo, together with the director of the Health Area, Esther Machín, and the Councilor for Social Welfare of the Cabildo, Marci Acuña, presented this help line, called Focus on yourself through which a prevention channel is offered to address any youth mental concern or problem in an effective, open and supportive manner.
"Our first objective is to be close to the young people of Lanzarote and La Graciosa because we know that being young is not always easy. Sometimes we have bad times when we need help. Therefore, whether it is due to stress, anxiety or simply because you need to talk to someone, we want to be with them so that they take care of their mental health," explained Aroa Revelo.
For this reason, the Cabildo of Lanzarote has contracted the services of a cabinet of professionals from the island to attend to the situations of mental fragility of young people. Through the WhatsApp messaging channel (686374417), any interested person, between 14 and 30 years old, may request an appointment and receive support. "The objective is also to reduce the waiting time that this type of consultation may have in Public Health," the councilor clarified.
Esther Machín, for her part, thanked the Cabildo for its collaboration and clarified that this beneficial psychological support service is already being provided by the Canary Islands Health Service, but that this understanding between administrations will facilitate the reduction of waiting lists in this specific specialty. "At least two out of ten young people between 14 and 19 years old have received some prescription for tranquilizers from the Canary Islands Health Service," she asserts.
On this matter, Marci Acuña, Councilor for Social Welfare and Inclusion, remarked that "institutions must always be at the forefront in the care of mental health", and that the Cabildo promotes this type of services. Acuña recalled that a few weeks ago the Cabildo already agreed to provide psychological help to students of secondary education institutes after signing an agreement with the Official College of Psychologists of Las Palmas. Thanks to this initiative, the 23 centers of Compulsory Education of Lanzarote and La Graciosa have a professional support and prevention service for adolescents. And now a new avenue of support is opened to any young person.
Acuña emphasized the work that the Institution has been carrying out during this term in the area of mental health care, "a very delicate issue in young adolescents because they are then forming their personality", an aspect where efforts have been multiplied and, in the specific case of the prevention of suicidal behaviors among young people, the Cabildo allocates many own resources.
60% acknowledge having had some mental health problem
Coinciding with World Mental Health Day and the launch of Focus on yourself, the Institution chaired by Oswaldo Betancort has launched a promotional video of the service.
The recording invites young people to take care of their mental health: "If you are between 14 and 30 years old, we want you to know that you are not alone, that we are here to listen to you and help you," notes the councilor in the recording. They also point out in the video that from the Health Area they want to "continue lowering the waiting list among young people of Lanzarote and La Graciosa, and these measures are aimed at that; this psychological support being totally free", clarifies Esther Machín in the projection designed for the purpose.
The promotional video ends with the phrases "Take care of your mental health. It is the first step for everything else."
And the data is alarming: the latest Report of the National Health System (SNS), published by the Ministry of Health, is conclusive when it states that more than a third of the country's population suffers from some mental disorder. In these cases, it highlights that the most frequent is anxiety, which attacks women twice as much as men.
In two years, coinciding with the post-pandemic era, its prevalence has increased by 34% in two years. A figure that, in the case of under 25s, reaches almost 41%. The highest age-adjusted prevalence is found in the Canary Islands (458.1).
In addition, almost 60% of young people in the Canary Islands acknowledge having experienced some mental health problem, and a significant part of those young Canarians who have mental health problems do not seek help because of its high cost, because the price is one of the main reasons why they do not seek professional help.
The data on the suicide rate in the Canary Islands is also devastating: it has become the leading cause of death, ahead of traffic accidents and cancer, in the population group of 15 to 29 years.
"It is a fact that in recent years, especially as a result of the global pandemic, concern for mental health has increased in all ages and sectors of the population," stressed Councilor Aroa Revelo.