translated from Spanish: Ministry of Health launches “Mental Health Care Guide”

The Undersecretary of Public Health, Paula Daza and the Undersecretary of Assistance Networks, Arturo Zúñiga, made the announcements in their respective areas with the purpose of continuing the delivery of benefits in public network hospitals through a Health Care Plan, as well as providing the population with a support tool for the management of mental health situations with a Guide to Mental Health Care.” The guide we are presenting today is aimed at knowing the symptoms and recognizing the warning signs that may make us think that a person is experiencing a critical situation from the point of view of his mental health,” said Undersecretary Daza.He added that this consultation material also seeks to support the population to manage mental health situations through personal resources, using self-care and support strategies for close people or family members.” This booklet will allow parents and families to know protective factors for children, divided according to their ages. Adolescents, older adults, among others, are also adolescents, including age groups, because each age group has minors to higher support requirements,” she said. The document is available for consultation and download on the Ministry of Health website and is in addition to the support actions that were enabled in the MINSAL Technical Table of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Disaster Risk Management, which made available to the assistance network general guidance, from the day it decreed State of Emergency in the country. The authority said that “we have seen a 22% increase in mental health medical leave, as well as a significant increase in emergency services consultations, which has made us take these steps to help the population.” The authority recalled that the Health Responds hotline (600 360 7777) is available where people can make psychological consultations if they require it. Regarding the Care Plan, the Undersecretary of Assistance Networks, Arturo Zúñiga, noted that given the problems that have affected hospitals in the last 5 weeks, 12 thousand surges were stopped, indicating that in the powers provided by the health alert hospital slam sahering hospital sauns, hospital directors have been allowed to have the necessary resources to seek solutions.” We need to catch up, also prioritizing cancer surgeries, as there are interventions that need to be done as soon as possible,” the authority said. While the Health Alert Decree applies until 1 December, he added, “we will extend work in the various hospitals until March as scheduled, although if the situation in the country continues, there will be no problem extending this plan until before the winter campaign of the year 2020,” he said. In this regard, he added that to achieve this objective, 8 immediate actions had been arranged to normalize the delivery of care. These range from performing surgeries and consultations in working hours, such as Saturday and Sunday, to the extension of Monday to Friday and medical operations. Measures for the resolution of surgeries:1.- Optimization in the use of resources: What implies use of surgical wards in non-working hours such as Saturdays and Sundays.2.-Time extension: Monday to Friday until 19 hours for performing surgical interventions of cases of greater complexity.3.-Priority surgical table: of cases with diagnosis and / or suspected cancer diagnosis.4.-Increase of the productive capacity of surgical wards, decreasing the start times of cutting the times between each surgery. Measures for the resolution of specialty consultations:5.- Consultations of specialists in extended hours: Monday to Friday until 20 hours6.- Focus of the Digital Hospital in the attentions of medical specialties through remote consultation: conducting consultations of specialists such as dermatology, Ophthalmology, Nephrology.7.- Delivery of medicines: Shift schedules will be extended and will be supported by officials from different areas to ensure faster access.8.- Medical operations: medical operations are being working on a calendar with different foundations, organizations and specialist associations to resolve care.

Original source in Spanish