The Northern Health Management Area of Almeria has carried out specific training in mental health for nurses from educational centres and child care centres, in which more than twenty professionals have participated. An initiative, which has dedicated up to 35 hours of teaching distributed in 4 sessions in which anxiety, depression, suicidal behaviour and eating disorders in childhood and adolescence have been dealt with.
The training is an important step forward, as it favours the implementation of preventive programmes and early detection of mental disorders in the educational environment, which is a key aspect that allows for effective interventions that improve the prognosis and quality of life of children and their families.
The management of the Northern Health Management Area has detailed that «the accredited training, in which dynamic and practical workshops have been held, has been possible thanks to the continuous and intense work of the multidisciplinary team of the Area’s Mental Health Unit (psychiatry, clinical psychology, social workers and nursing), which has been developing and maintaining specific programmes for the care of the child and adolescent population».
They also highlighted «the commitment that has been made by the Area’s professionals to mental health, and especially to the mental health of children and adolescents». They wanted to highlight the fact that the initiative arose from the nurses in charge of educational centres and their coordinator, Belén Martínez, supported by the nursing management of the Hospital La Inmaculada.
Macarena Marín Olalla, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, coordinated the teaching activity, with the close collaboration of the mental health nurses Francisca Rojas Segura, Alexandra Cintas López and Cristina Sánchez Asensio.