The Governing Council held on Monday approved the Mental Health Plan of the Canary Islands, a document resulting from the collaborative and coordinated work of 22 multidisciplinary and inter-institutional working groups, in which more than a hundred people participated, including patients, families and professionals. of the areas of Mental Health, Primary Care, Public Health, Drug Addiction, General Directorate of Minors, Dependency, Women’s Institute and Employment and Education Ministries.
This text, in the process of which the seven patient associations of the mental health field of the Canary Islands were invited to participate, has as its main objective psychosocial rehabilitation and the search for the eradication of stigma, as well as the coordination between Mental Health and the sociosanitary area to improve the care of these patients.
In addition, the Mental Health Plan of the Canary Islands seeks to set the guidelines to be followed during the next five years in the Archipelago, which is why the greatest consensus has been sought both in the scientific and care field, always with the perspective of the users and their relatives, axes of the Canarian public health system.
Financial file
The Mental Health Plan of the SCS has a financial record of 15,339,398 euros, which affects three basic aspects: care for the population with severe mental disorder; attention to the child-youth population, and the improvement of the resources and personnel of Mental Health devices. According to the financial statement, of the 15.3 million, a total of 4,249,398 will be allocated to new hires of personnel – specialists in psychiatry, clinical psychology, nursing, etc – and 11,090,000 for infrastructure and equipment in all the islands .
Thus, day hospitals for adults will be created in Gran Canaria, Tenerife and Lanzarote, half-stay units in Fuerteventura and La Palma, hospital admission units for children under 18 years of age in Gran Canaria and Tenerife, and infant and juvenile mental health units in Gran Canaria and Tenerife. Right, the Neighborhood Mental Health Unit is being launched and the facilities of the occupational workshops of the University Hospital of the Canary Islands in Tenerife have been completed. In addition, the work of the Infanto Juvenil Mental Health Unit of the capital of Gran Canaria has been completed.
The Plan includes the hiring of 106 professionals, of whom 12 are already joining (one specialist in Psychiatry, two in Clinical Psychology, two in Nursing, four Nursing assistants, one occupational therapist and two administrative assistants).
12 Strategic Lines
The Mental Health Plan of the Canary Islands is structured in 12 strategic lines and, given their relevance and magnitude, they are divided into several sub-lines that cover a total of 22 areas each of them addressed in each of the 22 working groups.
Thus, the Plan includes the two priority lines that had already been established in the Canary Islands Health Plan 2016-2017: care for people with severe mental disorders and attention to mental health for children and adolescents. It also covers areas such as the fight against stigma; mental health and gender; care for the elderly; prevention and treatment of suicidal behavior, and intra- and inter-institutional coordination.
In addition, the strategy encompasses other areas of great importance such as promotion and prevention and care for people with common mental disorder, eating disorders, personality disorders, dual pathology and addictions.
Another of the essential areas of the Plan is psychosocial rehabilitation, which is essential in the comprehensive treatment of people with severe mental disorders and requires a wide variety of resources and intersectoral coordination.
Likewise, the document includes a strategic line dedicated to information systems, a basic tool for the planning and strategic development of the Mental Health Network, an area in which Canarias stands out, thanks to its RECAP Registry.
Finally, the Plan has a line dedicated to training and research, basic areas for the development of the highest quality care and scientific update.
363,315 consultations to 64,278 patients in 2018
Throughout 2018 in the Canary Islands at ambulatory level, a total of 64,278 patients have been treated, representing an increase of 3.18 percent over 2017. In total, with these patients, 363,315 were performed last year. consultations.
In Mental Health Units of the Canary Islands there is a slight predominance of females, 55.5 percent, among patients and the most common age range in both sexes is 46 to 60 years, followed by 31 to 45 years. The diagnostic groups with the highest assisted prevalence were neurotic disorders secondary to stressful situations, mood disorders and schizophrenia, schizotypal disorder and delusional disorders.
