The Institute for Children and Adolescents of Uruguay (INAU) joined the national awareness campaign on mental health and psychosocial well-being aimed at young people, with the delivery of kits to homes throughout the country. This is a timely action because we are facing a reality that we cannot ignore, the suicide rates in Uruguay and even more adolescent suicide, said the president of INAU, Pablo Abdala.
In the delivery of the material, on the afternoon of Tuesday 15, the Minister of Social Development, Martín Lema, and the director of the National Youth Institute (INJU), Felipe Paullier, also participated.
The Ni Silencio, Ni Tabú campaign, promoted by the Ministry of Social Development (Mides), seeks to make visible what adolescents and young people think, feel and propose. So far, more than 12,500 young people have participated in 420 activities, with training sessions for some 1,200 adults. This is inter-institutional work, but the campaign also highlights the need to listen to others, explained Lema.
The minister added that a new National Survey of Adolescents and Youth is in the process of being carried out as a way of generating evidence on the problem. According to the latest data available, from 2018, 14.2% of the young people surveyed expressed despair or sadness for more than two weeks, while in 2013 it reached 10.7%. “It is a situation that warrants a response,” he explained.
The INJU director, meanwhile, indicated that the kit received contains a methodological guide to implement meeting activities in a workshop format, with didactic resources and, in this way, work on the development of emotional skills and protective factors in relation to health. mental health and suicide prevention. To the 50 kits delivered by INAU, another 400 INJU kits are added, he reported.
For Paullier, breaking taboos means understanding the subject of mental health and the warning signs in order to work from a prevention approach. As an example, in the kit it is possible to address gender issues, with slogans such as “men don’t cry” or “I don’t know what’s wrong with me”; those issues socialize and raise the issue of mental health, she added.
In addition, in November, some 200 youth center technicians will receive training to have the necessary tools to implement the campaign.
Abdala, for his part, stated that INAU will join the initiative through awareness-raising events in the 124 youth centers that are under its jurisdiction. The training of technical teams, educators, families and adolescents marks the need to generate climates and areas of analysis and participation for those who need help, he indicated.
«Neither Silence, nor Tabú is a campaign to change the paradigm; We have to put it at the center of public opinion, help prevent it and fight it,” said the chief.
