Health Launches A Psychosocial Well-Being Program Aimed At Women In Health Centers – D1SoftballNews.com

The initiative is extended to the entire Primary Care network after the successful development of a pilot project in Arnedo

Over the next three months, the Rioja Health Service is going to extend the Program for the Promotion of Women’s Psychosocial Well-being to all Primary Care centers in La Rioja, following the positive experience carried out at the Arnedo Health Center, in where it was launched in the fall of 2021. The Minister of Health, Maria Somalo; the manager of Primary Care, Paula Guerrero; the coordinator of the Technical Commission against Gender Violence, Mª Antonia Aretio; and the social worker of the CS of Arnedo, Urbina Aguilar, have presented this program, coinciding with the commemorative acts of the 8M.

For the Minister of Health, “it is essential that from the Government of La Rioja we specifically attend to the health of women applying the gender approach, even more so, given that different reports on the impact of COVID-19 reveal that the pandemic has harmed women and their opportunities as they are in a more vulnerable position due to having, in many cases, more precarious jobs and the additional burden of family care».

For her part, the manager of Primary Care, Paula Guerrero, explained that “the program for the Promotion of Women’s Psychosocial Well-being has a community approach, which encourages participation and personal autonomy, the objective of which is to improve the health status of women. women through a group process, in which they become aware of the impact that emotional discomfort has on their daily lives».

Aligned with the Strategic Plan of SERIS in the lines of prevention of gender violence and health promotion, the program is aimed at women aged 18 or over who come to the health system with problems of emotional discomfort, personal conflicts, crisis vital, difficulties in their affective, family and/or social relationships, low self-esteem, lack of personal skills. For this, knowledge, skills and attitudes are worked on in order to promote autonomy and empowerment from a gender perspective.

The coordinator of the Technical Commission against Gender Violence, Toñi Aretio, has specified that “in these group meeting spaces, alternative models of femininity are offered that promote self-care, as a protective factor, or of resilience for emotional and psychic health; The personal resources and skills necessary for women to establish a positive relationship with their body and develop healthy lifestyles are enhanced, and relaxation techniques are practiced to reduce situations of stress and anxiety, among other specific objectives».

The groups are promoted by the health social workers of each health center, who select the women who will participate in each group through individual interviews. To participate in a group, women can request an interview with the social worker, either on their own initiative or because they are referred from the consultations of the rest of the health center professionals or other health and social entities.

psychosocial distress

In recent years, epidemiological data show an alarming increase in anxiety disorders, depression, somatization and, in general, psychosocial discomfort in women, which makes it a relevant public health problem. The percentage of these diseases is much higher among women in relation to that among men, which advises an approach from a gender perspective, as detailed by the Government of La Rioja in a note.

The roots of this problem, which is affecting a large part of the female population, have to do largely “with gender inequity, with the sexist mandates that weigh on women and the living and working conditions of same». Thus, according to Health, “it is common to detect situations of overload due to having to face almost alone the double or even triple shift and most of the weight of the burden of caring for dependent and autonomous people, which makes rest and availability difficult. of spaces for self-care (sports, social relations, leisure…) generating dissatisfaction and fatigue in women».

“This multiplicity of factors that go through the lives of women frequently generate this psychosocial discomfort, characterized as emotional or bodily suffering, with poorly defined symptoms and without demonstrable organic cause,” the note concludes.