Elche to Establish New Psychiatric Hospitalization Unit for Minors

La Conselleria de Sanitat will open a new child and adolescent psychiatric hospitalization unit at the General University Hospital of Elche before the end of the year. The center will have six beds for minors with severe mental disorders, increasing the specialized care capacity for this age group in the Valencian Community by 32%.

The unit will be the fourth of its kind in the entire autonomous region and is part of the Valencian Plan for Mental Health and Addictions 2024-2027. This strategy includes the creation of 40 new psychiatric beds for children and adolescents, an area where the Community was clearly at a disadvantage. "Until now, not a single bed for minors had been created in recent legislatures," criticized the General Director of Mental Health and Addictions, Bartolomé Pérez Gálvez, during a visit to the future facilities.

The new space, located in the General Hospital of Elche, will serve patients from the entire southern health area of the province, within the interdepartmental health group that also includes the hospitals of Orihuela and Torrevieja.

The launch of the new unit will involve a staff increase: it will have 25 professionals including psychiatrists, psychologists, nursing staff, social workers, occupational therapists, assistants, orderlies, and administrative staff. This will allow for comprehensive and multidisciplinary care for hospitalized minors.

Additionally, Pérez Gálvez has assured that all psychiatry, clinical psychology, and mental health nursing residents finishing their training this July "will have a guaranteed position" in one of the three hospitals in southern Alicante.

So far in 2024, the Conselleria has increased the number of psychiatrists by 27% and psychologists by 39% in these health departments, a trend that, according to the General Director, will continue throughout the year.

The Generalitat has also announced an investment in innovative technology for mental health treatments. The hospitals of Elche and Orihuela will be equipped with transcranial magnetic stimulation devices, aimed at resistant cases of depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Furthermore, the three health departments —including Torrevieja— will incorporate direct transcranial stimulation devices, which will allow treating symptoms such as auditory hallucinations or depressive episodes without patients needing to travel to the hospital.

The services will be complemented with virtual reality equipment for the treatment of phobias and anxiety disorders, in a commitment to a "cutting-edge" mental health portfolio, as highlighted by the Generalitat.

The budget for mental health and addictions has increased by 75% compared to the previous year, which the Consell describes as "a historic milestone" that will allow the Valencian Community to be "at the forefront of the country in mental health care" by the end of this legislature.