Two out of ten Spanish adolescents between 10 and 19 years old suffered from mental health problems in 2019, the highest percentage of the 33 European states analyzed by UNICEF in its report "State of the World's Children 2021." During the year 2021 and so far in 2022, we find, day after day, news pointing to the already known "silent pandemic" related to the increase in mental disorders in the population, including young people.
During my almost 10 years working as a social worker with adolescents, I have learned that they suffer differently from adults. Moreover, instability in the lives of adults produces changes in themselves, which are usually expressed in depression and anxiety. My experience tells me that we must listen to them not only when they explode, but every day and at all times, and although we often do not receive an answer.
They are the great forgotten of society. Adults are immersed in work, economic and emotional stress. We lose our jobs, break up with our partners and build a new one. But we do not think that every change influences the youngest, those who observe us silently from their "refuge-rooms." As if that were not enough, we label them as "rebels," "bad-mannered" or "capricious," without being able to interpret that behind each one there is frustration, anxiety, depression, anger, rage and many other emotions that no one has taught them to manage.
Because when we reach adolescence we are faced with reality, with the pressure of studies, a peer group and the great demands of this society that demands so much, but that little or nothing reports. Adolescence is often spent in a state of emotional individuality that makes the girl or boy lack a person to guide them and be by their side, even if they think they do not need it.
Therefore, the public system of social services, education, health and even society itself, must adapt to the demands on the mental health of our adolescents. I will point out three ideas that can be implemented immediately from the Government of the Canary Islands, the Island Councils and/or Town Halls: 1) multidisciplinary teams of psychologists and social workers on the street who access young people who are outside the system, carrying out a comprehensive follow-up with each of them; 2) development of protocols for attempted suicide in schools, institutes and universities; 3) specific intervention in the so-called "key children", those who spend much of their time alone as a result of their parents' difficulties in reconciling work with the care of the home and family. These girls and boys spend long hours alone once school hours are over, maintaining habits of loneliness, frustration, low academic performance, etc.
In short, we must understand that their future depends on their mental health. And, above all, as a society we need to take care of them because, on some occasions, they must be protected from themselves. Caring for young people is imperative to build a "home-island" with a future. Let's not forget them.