Work on the development of the Bons Aires Health Park will begin before July, according to the Councillor for Health and Consumer Affairs, Patricia Gómez, who appeared in the Balearic Islands Parliament at her own request to explain the most important actions that have been carried out in recent months in the areas of mental health, primary care and health promotion.

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With regard to the first of these issues, during his appearance, Gómez stressed that the process to draw up the new Mental Health Plan 2023-2029 has begun and that the Inter-institutional Technical Committee – made up of technicians from various ministries of the Government, as well as from the island councils, the Federation of Local Entities of the Balearic Islands, Palma City Council and various public and private entities – has already met three times since it was set up in April.

The group is currently analysing all the existing resources, possible duplication of services and the niches where there are uncovered gaps in order to identify the needs for change. “The aim is to promote a shared, transversal and global vision of care that guarantees the life project of people who suffer or may suffer from a mental health problem, and to facilitate their detection, assessment, care and socio-educational and occupational integration,” said the councillor.

In line with this vision of integration, Gómez highlighted that during the month of June work will begin on the development of the Bons Aires Health Park, which houses various mental health care services, to turn it into a space open to the public. These works, which will involve an investment of ten million euros in the site, will also have an important symbolic charge, as the demolition of the walls will represent a further step in the fight against the stigma that still accompanies mental health problems.

Another of the lines of work highlighted by the councillor was the prevention of suicide and, in this case, she referred to the Plan for the Prevention, Action and Approach to Suicidal Behaviour, which has been drawn up with the participation of a hundred people from more than fifty public institutions and third sector organisations. The Plan plans to improve the prevention, detection and approach to suicidal behaviour in the population in general and in the most vulnerable groups in particular, which will be achieved by creating and strengthening resources and flexible referral circuits and specialised treatment and reinforcing the presence of the families of people at risk in the care processes. In addition, a fourth level, dedicated to the prevention, will also be added.

The councillor also referred to the various care services that have been set up or reinforced in mental health care, such as the Hospitalisation Unit and the Day Hospital for Dual Pathology Care (UPD); the Dual Pathology Day Hospital in Eivissa; the Mental Health Units in Son Servera, Felanitx, Muro, Alcúdia, Sineu, Sa Pobla, Es Blanquer and Pollença; the Mental Health Home Hospitalisation Unit (HAD) in the Ponent health area; the Addictive Behaviour Unit in Formentera, and the Mental Health Day Hospital in the Manacor area.

Gómez stressed that these milestones have only been possible thanks to an increase in human resources. In the last four years the budget for this purpose has been increased by 2.2 million euros, which has allowed the incorporation of 62 professionals, he explained.

With regard to the situation of primary care, he stressed that the Balearic Islands Health Service has drawn up the 2022-2026 Primary Care Strategic Plan, which aims to guarantee the sustainability of primary care, offer comprehensive, quality care that provides value, advance in digital transformation and promotes professional development, research and innovation. “These aspects should allow us to move towards a new way of working in a network and towards greater participation of professionals and citizens in decision-making”, said Gómez, who highlighted the role of primary care not only from the point of view of disease care but also from the point of view of prevention and the promotion of individual and community health.

In terms of health promotion, the councillor highlighted the launch of EinaSalut, a highly sophisticated digital resource that will help to improve the individual and collective health of the population. This innovative public procurement project, in which 530,000 euros have been invested, financed 50% by ERDF funds, began to take shape in 2019 and more than one hundred professionals from different ministries, institutions and associations have worked on it.

Gómez recalled that it has several uses and recipients. On the one hand, it is an instrument for individual citizens, healthy or with illnesses, to evaluate their state of physical and emotional health, to know how they can improve through progressive actions and to evaluate the results. It is also an instrument for collective work so that institutions, educational centres, companies and associations can set up, monitor and evaluate their projects linked to health promotion. Finally, it is a massive data collection engine that can help to know more accurately the state of health of neighbourhoods and communities and, from there, to make effective and efficient management decisions by public administrations.

A little over a month after its launch, the platform has already registered more than five thousand accesses and more than a thousand self-assessment questionnaires have been filled in, relating to diet, physical activity, tobacco consumption and emotional wellbeing.

The councillor closed her speech by expressing the Government’s commitment to improving the services and resources allocated to health, and reminded the audience that the Balearic Islands have gone from being the eleventh community in Spain in terms of life expectancy in 2015 to being the first. In Europe, he recalled, the Balearic Islands are the region with the second highest life expectancy. This figure, he stressed, indicates that the citizens of the Balearic Islands now have better health and a longer life than seven years ago.