Mental Health Castilla y León held an interesting conference on young people and mental health this Thursday at the Science and Technology Station in Burgos, in which the PasaXT project Towards Employment and an Impact Study has been presented, which has left satisfactory and, above all, hopeful results.
Thus, the report reveals that in its development there has been a 12 percent of job placements while 24 percent returned to their training to have more options to find a job.
Furthermore, six months after this project ended, Salud Mental Castilla y León considers that the set objectives have been met since seven out of ten people participating in this project, all of them unemployed and inactive, either got a job, obtained a qualification or pursued some type of studies.which were the priorities that had been set in the entity.
In addition, 43 percent of these people with mental health problems have remained active in looking for workoo of new training opportunities, to which is added that of the 100 people participating in all editions of the project, 24 continued their training to have more employability options.
This project, which has been very well received, offers a training itinerary of 360 hours per participant andn in which knowledge focused on personal competencies, emotional intelligence and social skills is worked on, but also skills for employabilitybasic digital training for job search or contact with companies and collaboration with community social fabric, as reported by the Federation.
“We are talking about a initiative that improves the employability of young people con mental health problems that encourages us to continue betting on the fight for equal opportunities to access the labor market of all young people, especially those who encounter greater difficulties and barriers as is the case of our group,” highlights the manager of Mental Health Castilla y León, Angel Lozano.
The project focuses on offering a series of actions aimed at promote the social and labor inclusion of young people with psychosocial disabilities under 30 years of age, In addition to contributing to your recovery and empowerment through strengthening their employability.
The main actions focus on orientation addressing basic competencies; support in decision-making about training and employment, and the creation of flexible and personalized itineraries. “Our goal has always been strengthen attitudes, skills and strategies, both at the individual and interpersonal level, to through the development of specific work capabilities and competencies that prepare the participants for their inclusion in the social and work environment,” explains Elena Briongospresident of the CyL Mental Health Federation.
The Conference included the participation of the president of the regional Youth Council, Sandra Amez, who has analyzed in his intervention the challenges, difficulties and problems that young people encounter and their relationship with their mental health or emotional well-being. In addition, attendees have been able to attend the motivational talk by psychologist, vignette artist and illustrator, Pablo R. Coca specialized in mental health communication and author of @occimorons.
Social and political context
The European Union Youth Strategy 2019-2027, ratified by the Council of the European Union in December 2018, proposes as its first objective “that young people become architects of their own lives, supporting their personal development and their path towards autonomy.” To this end, among its strategic goals it incorporates goal 5, “Achieve greater mental well-being and end the stigmatization of mental health problems, thus promoting the social inclusion of all young people,” and sets the objective, among others, of “Safeguard the right to work and study of people with mental health problems during and after illness, to ensure that they do not have to give up their ambitions”; and within goal 7: “Ensure an accessible labor market with opportunities that lead to quality jobs for all young people”, raises several objectives among which are “guaranteeing equal opportunities so that all young people can develop the necessary skills and acquire practical experience, in order to facilitate the transition from education to the labor market.”
In the same way, the Youth Strategy 2036carried out by the Spanish Youth Institute (INJUVE, 2022), dependent on the Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030, incorporates two axes of special interest in this analysis framework: the second axis, on “autonomy, decent employment and young entrepreneurship”, whose goal is “the access of young people to decent, stable and well-paid employment that allows them to develop their life projects, guarantees equal opportunities and the reconciliation between work and personal life”; and the third axis, on “comprehensive health and quality of life”, whose objectives include “guaranteeing the mental well-being of youth, preventing suicide and ending the stigmatization of mental health problems.”
According to the report “Employment of people with disabilities” by the INE, young people with disabilities represent 5.2% of the total disabled population of active age in our country and their prevalence rate is 2. 4 %. Of them, 32% do not pass primary education, about 32,000 people. illiteracy, in the group they represent more than 10.7%. Regarding the relationship between young people with disabilities and the labor market, it is fundamentally marked by the high percentage of inactivity detected (76.6%). Their unemployment rate is higher, well above that shown by the same group without disabilities (24.2 points), while their employment rate barely reaches 10%.
37.7% of young people with disabilities between 16 and 29 years old lived in a situation of risk of poverty in 2020 or social exclusion, seven percentage points more than equivalent people without disabilities according to the data collected in the INE’s 2020 Living Conditions Survey. The highest unemployment rate is reached in the group of young people with disabilities under 25 years of age (48.1%).
The participation of people with disabilities in the labor market remains low. According to the latest Report “The Employment of People with Disabilities”, published by the INE, in December 2023 (referring to 2022 data), 35.3% of people aged 16 to 64 with officially recognized disabilities were active, 0.7 points more than the previous year. This activity rate was 42.7 points lower than that of the population without disabilities.
Work participation is highly determined by the type and intensity of the disability. People with psychosocial disabilities have the second lowest employment rate in the entire field of disability. According to the report, the employment rate of people with mental health problems in 2022 was 18.9%.
Within this context, Employment Law 3/2023 is approved. This standard establishes “priority attention” measuresto promote access to employment for people with “special difficulties in accessing and maintaining employment and developing their employability”, identifying “vulnerable groups for priority attention”, which includes people with disabilities, and, within Among them, those who present “greater difficulties in accessing the labor market” are expressly mentioned and are described in article 50.1 of the Law as “people with cerebral palsy, mental health disorders, intellectual disabilities or mental disorders.” on the autism spectrum, with a recognized degree of disability equal to or greater than 33 percent; as well as people with physical or sensory disabilities with a recognized degree of disability equal to or greater than 65 percent.”