The plenary session on Wednesday 28th unanimously approved a manifesto on the occasion of World Suicide Prevention Day, which will be commemorated on September 10th. In the presentation of point 10 of the agenda, the councillor for Social Inclusion, Melisa Ceballos (PP), stressed that “the Town Hall knows that commitment is needed to make this problem more visible and to make progress in the prevention of suicidal behaviour with the coordination of sectors such as the security forces and the health, educational and social spheres”.

The councillor recalled that, within the Suicidal Behaviour Prevention Programme promoted by the town hall, a working group has been created which includes different departments, such as Social Inclusion, Youth, Senior Citizens, Education and Local Police, and in which social agents such as Afesol, the Mental Health Unit of Mijas-Fuengirola and the Costa del Sol Health District also take part. It will establish a strategy for municipal action to “influence the need for good mental and emotional health, promoting healthy environments for people through information, dissemination, awareness and training”, explained Ceballos. 

Reactions

The point went ahead with the vote in favour of the entire corporation, after the amendments proposed by the opposition groups. The councillor of the Municipal Socialist Group Hipólito Zapico described the manifesto as “rather light, with no commitments or demands for improvement, which are so necessary in mental health issues”. Zapico took the opportunity to recall that, in the previous term of office, a programme had already been initiated which coordinated all the agents involved and which was awarded a prize. The socialist councillor also asked for “a meeting of all the groups to reach a consensus on this manifesto, which should also demand the involvement of the Regional Ministry of Health” to improve the mental health unit.

For her part, the Cs councillor Mariló Olmedo stated that “something quite important is missing from this manifesto, which is the care aspect. We think that the Town Hall should demand that the competent administrations find a solution to the lack of professionals and infrastructures to attend to people with mental health problems”.

The councillor for Social Inclusion accepted the inclusion of both proposals and stressed the need to “give more visibility to this issue, which for many years has been a taboo topic. We are seeing more and more teenagers with suicidal ideas and we must face this major tragedy in the 21st century”. According to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), in 2023 there were 3,952 deaths by suicide in Spain, the main cause of unnatural death.

Share it with this link: https://mijasint.com/?a=31885