The Mental Health Commissioner of the Ministry of Health, Belén González, has appeared before the Health Commission of the Congress of Deputies, where she has outlined her projects and announced a new 2025-2027 action plan that will involve co-financing for the autonomous communities.

Measuring mental suffering at work
The commissioner also explained that a project has been launched to recognise and record all mental suffering derived from work. This project will involve a multidisciplinary group of experts ranging from philosophers to labour inspectors, sociologists, psychiatrists, family doctors and nurses, because ‘work is becoming increasingly difficult, more intense, faster and more precarious. And it is hurting more and more. It is our responsibility as a government to take action on an issue that is already a public health problem.

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Mental Health Commissioner

In Spain, despite the recommendations of the International Labour Organisation, no mental disorders directly linked to work or working conditions are recognised. The intention of the Ministry of Health is, in the first place, to establish a common framework for the detection and recognition of work-related mental suffering as a first step towards its registration, monitoring and, ultimately, to be able to pinpoint the working conditions that are making us ill. According to the conclusions of the PRESME report by the Ministry of Labour and the Group of Experts on Mental Health and Precariousness at Work, if we were to put an end to job insecurity, we could have avoided 170,000 cases of depression by 2020.

Social factors, at the origin of many disorders
In recent years there has been a trend towards the medicalisation of social problems, a situation that has two consequences, according to the commissioner: firstly, the increase in demand on the health system, which partially explains the excessive increase in waiting lists; secondly, the problems that arise from trying to solve social problems with health tools.

Deprescription
Spain has the second highest consumption of anxiolytics in Europe after Portugal, and the fourth highest consumption of antidepressants. Prescriptions have been rising steadily since records began to be kept. This increase is particularly worrying in the young population. Among 20-24 year olds, the consumption of antidepressants has increased by 52% since 2017, 40.4% among 25-29 year olds
‘For this reason, from this Commissioner we are going to promote a comprehensive plan for the deprescription of psychotropic drugs and for the improvement of the use of psychotropic drugs aimed at both Primary Care teams, the specialised mental health network and with information that empowers the general population. We are going to create training materials available to clinicians, such as clinical guides and courses, and we are going to promote social prescribing as an alternative,’ the commissioner said.

The idea is to be able to prescribe, for example, ‘sports groups instead of rubifen, feminist associations instead of sertraline, or a trade union instead of Lorazepam’, he said. This prescription is especially promoted by the World Health Organisation, and the ministry’s intention is to make it more frequent and more effective, coordinating with social agents, social services, neighbourhoods and town councils so that it can be carried out. In addition, a permanent committee will be set up with the Directorate General of Social Services, which will gradually be joined by more members to study how to carry out this initiative.

Suicide
The Mental Health Commission will implement a specific plan to shed light on the conditions and triggers of this problem and to take measures of proven effectiveness. In addition, the commissioner stressed, ‘we will continue with projects that have already been developed, such as the 024 helpline, to which we are going to add improvements such as the recommendation of health assets for users who can benefit from it. In 2025 we will also have an action plan against suicide that will have independent funding’.