The Government Delegate, Sabrina Moh, has opted for a comprehensive and coordinated response to provide a mental health response to migrant children.
The highest representative of the Government of Spain in our city has participated in the inauguration of the Working Days on Mental Health and Migrant Children organized by UNICEF, which are being held at the UNED in Melilla.
The head of the Delegation, in her speech has highlighted the good work that Ingesa is doing in the Child-Youth Mental Health Unit in Melilla since its creation in December 2021.
One unit, he explained, develops its work of comprehensive care, from multidisciplinarity and intersectoral coordination, within the framework of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Mental Health Strategy of the National Health System.
Moh, who has echoed the complex phenomenon of migration and the impact it has on the most vulnerable people, such as girls and boys, and the exposure to traumatic situations that, in many cases, they live. “Recognizing and understanding these challenges is part of the work that is being carried out by the Government and the entities to provide an adequate and adapted response to these needs through a solid and effective support system,” he said.
Moh has thanked UNICEF and all those who have collaborated and contributed in the realization of these days not only because it means a deepening and improvement of the knowledge of this subject, but also for the role of dissemination and awareness in the society that it supposes.
Child-Youth Unit
The Territorial Director of Ingesa, Omar Haouari, who also participated in the inauguration of these days, has influenced the work of the Child and Youth Mental Health Unit, whose implementation “meant a real commitment and effort to incorporate this comprehensive vision of mental health from a psychosocial point of view, with the essential coordination between the different professionals and sectors involved, which cannot forget the cultural diversity of our health area and the special situation of those foreign minors who need to be beneficiaries of their mental health care”.
“In Ingesa,” he added, “we are aware of the complexity of the care for these children, most of them unaccompanied, who require the development of care programs, not only from the point of view of intervention but also of real strategies for the prevention and promotion of their mental and physical health.”
Something, he said, that “we can only do it through the coordination and cross-cutting of all the professionals involved, directly or indirectly, in the care of these children with the necessary awareness and training”.
“Melilla can and must be an exemplary territory for the care of migrant minors from the promotion and prevention of mental health in development, the integration of biopsychosocial in health care, equity and respect for interculturality, diversity… and, above all, the Rights of the Child,” he concluded.
Integration and respect for diversity
The Territorial Director of the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports (MEFPyD) in Melilla, Juan Ángel Berbel, participated as a speaker at the table entitled ‘Current situation of systems involved in the mental health of migrant and refugee children and adolescents in Melilla’.
In it, he explained that the incorporation into the educational system of students of foreign origin has assumed the appearance of new educational needs, motivated by the diversity of origin and culture of immigrant students.
A reality in which the centers act to support the learning of the Castilian language, the maintenance of its culture of origin and the integration of immigrant students in the respective school and social environments.
In addition, as he has said, the educational attention to emigrant students takes into account the causes that have given rise to this situation, the difficulties and misalignments that come with incorporation into the social, cultural and school context and the impact of all this on their personal development and learning. “In general, their needs are met through the development of activities and the use of teaching materials that facilitate the understanding and interaction of the various languages and culture,” he said.
In this regard, the Provincial Director explained that the schools that educate immigrant students carry out activities that promote their access, permanence and promotion in the educational system, promoting the value of interculturality, respect for diversity and the exchange of experiences, which are reflected in the Center Project.
In addition, “it promotes awareness and training among professionals so that they are prepared to meet the particular needs of these minors and provide them with the necessary support for their academic and personal development,” he explained.