The program CoorEducaSalutMental that attends to the needs of students with diagnosed and supervening mental health problems attended to a total of 238 cases of students last academic year (2021/22) who reportedly expressed suicidal ideations. The managing nurse of these cases who coordinates this program, Marina Ovejero, reveals that 70% of the interventions carried out last year for mental disorders (341) were of this type.
The pediatrician Mercedes Escarrer, who coordinates this program with Ovejero, qualifies that the interventions on students with a serious risk of carrying out suicidal ideations “are very few,” she reassures.
However, she admits that the effects of the measures that should have been adopted due to the pandemic are being felt and that is why they are providing a lot of training so that both teachers and students themselves know how to handle these situations. “The figures (of treatment for suicide risk) are very high and alarming,” admits Escarrer as one of the main side effects of the pandemic.
Workshops for students to manage discomfortÂ
“We are giving them anxiety management workshops, guidelines so that they know how to relax and manage the emotional discomfort they suffer, as well as getting them used to reducing the use of technology (mobile devices),” the pediatrician explains.
The Regional Ministry of Health first implemented in the 2016-2017 academic year the CoorEducaSalut program so that nurses from the nearest health centers would go to classrooms with students with serious and chronic health problems to cover their needs.
The students who would benefit from this care would be those suffering from severe asthma episodes, allergies with risk of anaphylaxis (very serious allergic reaction, which can even cause death, due to an excessive reaction of the immune system by exposure to an external allergen), diabetes, epilepsy and heart disease involving the risk of sudden death. The nurse Marilén Sansó manages and organizes the assistance of these cases.
Three years later, in the 2019/20 academic year, the other program was implemented to meet the needs of students with mental health problems. This program coordinates the care of children and adolescents with mental pathologies diagnosed as neurodevelopmental disorders [Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), along with others] as well as serious emotional disorders and students at risk of self-harm (suicide) detected in the school.
CoorEducaSalutMental Program
It attends to students with mental health problems such as autism spectrum disorders or attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders already diagnosed, as well as serious emotional disorders and students at risk of suicide. Last year this program carried out 341 actions of which 70% (238) were to prevent suicidal ideations.
CoorEducaSalut Program
It is aimed at normalizing the schooling of children with diabetes, asthma, epilepsy, allergies or heart disease. Last year 226 students, mostly diabetics (136), were assisted.
The nurse case manager of this program, Marina Ovejero, explains that schools often ask for her help when they have doubts about how to act in the face of an eating disorder that is accompanied by an added emotional problem, she gives as an example.
And that in these cases they check if the student in question is being treated by any mental health care device to coordinate with their psychologist of reference as well as to also provide all the information to the counselors of their own school previously trained to address these issues.
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