General Hospital of Elche will have a new unit for minors with mental health issues

Carlos Mazón, the president of the Generalitat (Catalan Government), announced that the Consell will triple the number of hospital beds for minors with mental disorders. This will be achieved by the establishment of seven new child and adolescent psychiatric units in various hospitals throughout the Valencian Community in the coming months. Mazón visited the Elche Hospital, which will have a new unit of this type by the end of the year. He stated that the creation of six new units is currently being finalised in accordance with the Valencian Mental Health and Addictions Plan 2024-2027: Gandia (6), San Juan (12), Arnau de Vilanova (8), the former Military Hospital (6), Clínico de Valencia (6), and Alcoy (6).

Elche Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Unit

The president stated that the child and adolescent psychiatric hospitalisation unit at Elche Hospital, the fourth of its kind in the Valencian Community, will have six beds and “will enable the hospitalisation of over 60 minors with acute mental disorders each year” who necessitate a therapeutic, specialised, close, and caring environment.

This new service, which has received an annual investment of €900,000 in staff and a €120,000 investment in construction, will be staffed by a team of 23 healthcare and education professionals, including psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, specialist nurses, social workers, therapists, teachers, and assistants and others.

Therapies

Additionally, both the Elche and Orihuela General University Hospitals will be equipped with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation apparatus to treat resistant cases of depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder in terms of technological innovation. Additionally, patients at the Torrevieja Health Department will reap the advantages of this technology.

Furthermore, the three departments will be equipped with Direct Transcranial Stimulation apparatus, which will enable patients to manage persistent auditory hallucinations and depression at home without the necessity of hospital care. In addition to these measures, the three departments will have Virtual Reality apparatus to treat phobias and other anxiety disorders.

The newly constructed modules in hospitals

In this manner, the Valencian Community will increase its current number of beds from 19 to 69, “which will elevate us from the bottom of the Spanish hospital provision ladder for child and adolescent mental health to the top three in terms of care, resources, beds, and prevention,” he stated.

He emphasised that this dedication to the mental health of children is in stark contrast to the previous government’s commitment, which “in recent legislative sessions did not create a single bed for children and adolescents,” despite the heightened demand and the severity of clinical cases among children due to the pandemic.

The head of the Valencian government underscored that this transformation is “possible due to the investment efforts of the Consell, which has increased the budget allocated to mental health care and addiction prevention by 75% this year, surpassing €192 million.”

He further stated that the endeavour would be less significant “if we had the necessary financing and liquidity, if we had a levelling fund, and if we were not the last in the Spanish government’s social policies.”

Consequently, Mazón characterised it as “unfair” that there are “communities that do not have to exert as much effort as we do to be on the podium or above average.”

He underscored the Consell’s dedication to public healthcare, with a particular emphasis on mental health, which he referred to as “one of the great social problems of the 21st century.” The president stated that these two areas “will not compensate for the lack of funding and, as a result, the healthcare neglect to which the Spanish Government is subjecting us.”

In this vein, he commended the implementation of the Valencian Mental Health and Addictions Plan 2024-27, which has a budget of 724 million euros, as well as the Health Budget for 2025, which he referred to as “the most significant in the history of the Valencian Community.”