Different experts have analyzed the mental health situation in Latin America in the framework of World Mental Health Day.
The president of the Colombian Public Health Association, Juan Eduardo Guerrero; the Colombian clinical psychologist MarÃa Paula Aguilera Jiménez; and Flavia Gal, president of the CÃrculo Polar Foundation of Chile, have evaluated the situation in the region regarding mental health, with special emphasis on different educational, social and medical approaches to reverse a crisis that, they consider, has multiple facets.
“There is an international alert that leads us to improve access to health services in general for all types of problems, but logically to improve access to mental health services in our countries,â€
–Â Guerrero, who during his extensive career has held multiple positions in the United Nations (UN), including the World Health Organization (WHO).
Mental health in Latin America
The specialist stressed the importance of “raising awareness that the problem of mental health exists and that it is necessary to talk about it,†as well as training health and education professionals so that they can detect these types of situations in time and contribute to closing the gaps in access to health services by different population groups in the region.
She also urged “reaching out to families and communities†to “talk openly and without prejudice†about the issue and considered that “in the Americas region there are very large differences†in the investment by different countries in mental health.
Psychoeducation
The forum, entitled ‘Mental Health without Taboos: A Challenge for Latin America’, was organized with Kleenex and aimed to promote comprehensive emotional health in the region.
The meeting was moderated by Manuel Fuentes, EFE’s editorial director for America, who highlighted the worsening of the mental health crisis in the region during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and posed various questions to specialists on how to deal with this situation.
Flavia Gal, head of the CÃrculo Polar Foundation of Chile, placed special emphasis on the concept of ‘psychoeducation’, which – she said – seeks to empower patients and their families to “have a minimum knowledge of mental health”, something she considered key for treatment and the connection with professionals.
“Knowledge is the opposite of stigma, it is the opposite of discomfort and it is the opportunity we have to improve mental health,â€
— Flavia Gal.
Role of the media in mental health
On the other hand, when asked about the role of the media in the stigmatization of mental health problems, she explained that they play a fundamental role given that “language is the first therapeutic act†– Aguilera Jiménez
How the subject is communicated can affect the general population. On this issue, Aguilera Jiménez stressed the importance of having an “empathetic and validating stance†on mental health disorders that does not foster stigma and called for a change in communication that stops addressing this issue as a taboo.
The challenge facing the young
The Colombian clinical psychologist also warned about the challenge facing the young population in the region, in the face of what she described as “over-information,†while she considered that social networks represent both a problem and a solution, since they can offer important and quality information but are also a source of misinformation.
The experts also addressed the challenges of mental health caused by the growing social polarisation in the region’s societies, as well as the challenge posed by inequalities both between and within countries.
All three agreed on the need to increase investment and promote public policies to address the mental health crisis and repeatedly stressed the urgent need to eliminate the stigmas that still exist in the region around this problem
