SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 6 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Minister of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, Blas Trujillo, has announced that during this first half of the year the Canary Islands Health Service (SCS) will hire twenty clinical psychologists who will join some twenty health centers on the islands to continue extending the psychological care project in health centers that was launched in June 2022 in Primary Care.
In response to a question from the deputy of the Socialist Parliamentary Group Pino González, the counselor explained in parliamentary committee that it is an action of the Primary Care Strategy, +AP, of which the Canary Islands has been a pioneer in Spain in the incorporation of clinical psychologists in health centers.
Since this service was launched, Clinical Psychology professionals have attended a total of 10,722 consultations among the population over 15 years of age in the 25 health centers on the islands where it is already operating.
Regarding the forecasts, Trujillo advanced that in 2023 the hiring of twenty clinical psychology professionals for health centers is planned: seven in the Gran Canaria Health Area, six in Tenerife, two in La Palma, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote and one in La Gomera.
He also indicated that this year group and community psychological interventions for the prevention and promotion of mental health will continue to be promoted, as well as training and research activities for psychology professionals in the field of primary care clinical practice, with the aim of to continue implementing this service in all basic health areas.
In this sense, the counselor recalled that the Primary Care Psychological Care Program in the Canary Islands is one of the 42 priority actions contained in the Comprehensive Primary Care Strategy 2022-2023, +AP, on which work has been carried out in recent years in consensus with scientific societies and has been implemented since April 2022 in all basic health areas, when the epidemiological situation due to covid-19 has allowed it.
“Mental health care is a priority for the Government of the Canary Islands, hence this action is intended to respond, from the first level of care, to mild psychiatric pathology, promoting psychological treatments to be more accessible to the population” he remembered.
The counselor reviewed the objectives of this service, including improving the approach to common mental disorders by prioritizing the psychotherapeutic approach and guaranteeing compliance with one of the main objectives of multidisciplinary Primary Care, which is the promotion health and disease prevention.
“These professionals also carry out an early and effective intervention on the symptoms of Common Mental Disorders, avoiding their chronification, worsening or referral to the second level of care; they improve the coping capacity of chronic physical disorders that typically present with anxious-depressive symptoms; they increase people’s ability to cope with everyday problems and reduce medicalization; they apply and adapt treatments according to clinical practice guidelines, and they reduce avoidable health costs, both indirect (temporary disabilities) and direct (pharmacological costs). ),” he explained.
Blas Trujillo also stated that the program is serving to promote the figure of the Clinical Psychology professional in the public health system and, specifically, in Primary Care, providing psychological care to the population with common mental disorders such as anxiety, depression, adjustment or somatization disorders, among others, of mild and moderate intensity with a prior assessment by Family Medicine of the Primary Care team.
“This care is provided both individually and in groups, according to the specific clinical or community needs of the population assigned to each Basic Health Zone,” the counselor added.
The project to incorporate clinical psychology in health centers will be evaluated through a Salvador Tranche scholarship from the Canary Islands Health Research Institute Foundation (FIISC) corresponding to the year 2022 through the research work Evaluation of the implementation of the Strategy of Psychological care in Primary Care on the island of Gran Canaria.
EXPANSION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL CARE
For her part, the deputy of the Socialist Parliamentary Group Pino González opted for the expansion of psychological care in all the health centers of the islands and to continue with the implementation of this service in the Primary Care of the Archipelago launched by the Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands within the Comprehensive Strategy for Primary and Community Care 2022-2023.
Pino González stressed that the Canary Islands have become one of the first autonomous communities to implement the figure of the clinical psychologist in Primary Care, in order to achieve early and effective intervention on the symptoms of mental disorders.
The Socialist deputy considered it “essential” to meet the increase in demand and to be able to guarantee the comprehensive health of the population, expand and improve the services of the health centers on the islands, reduce the pressure on mental health units and alleviate the burden of work to doctors and family doctors.
In this line, he recalled that in the Canary Islands depression has a prevalence of more than 8% in relation to the total number of chronic pathologies, figures that have doubled after the pandemic, in addition to taking into account that daily mental health consultations in Primary Care They represent between 20% and 25%. “Only 5% of these consultations are referred to other levels of care, and the follow-up of these patients falls within the scope of Primary Care,” he added.
In addition, he stressed the need to reduce the medicalization of functional emotional processes, taking into account that some 100,000 people in the Canary Islands consume benzodiazepines. “With this psychological care in health centers, it is also intended to improve the ability to deal with chronic physical disorders that present with anxious-depressive symptoms,” he added.
González encouraged the Ministry of Health to continue expanding psychological assistance to the rest of the health centers on the islands “to continue advancing in the prevention and care of mental health problems of the population more quickly and closely.”