During the opening ceremony, Cristina Molina, the Director of the Master Plan for Mental Health and Addiction at the Government of Catalonia’s Ministry of Health, affirmed that mental health is everyone’s responsibility: patients, families and healthcare professionals alike. It is estimated at that approximately 9% of the Spanish population suffers from at least one issue related to mental health, and it is predicted that at least 15% of those patients will suffer from that issue throughout their lives (Estrategia Salud Mental (“Mental Health Strategy”), 2007). Faced with this context, Pere Bonet, the Director of the Althaia Foundation’s Mental Health Division and Chair of the Advisory Committee for Mental Health and Addiction at the Government of Catalonia’s Ministry of Health, argued that approaches to mental illness must be integrated into the model for chronic disease.

During the second part of the event, which went by the title of “The Healthcare Environment and Organization Strategy” and was chaired by Dr. Xavier Corbella, the Director of the UIC’s Master’s Degree programme in Healthcare Management, emphasis was given to the ways in which healthcare systems have evolved. Professor Jesús de Miguel from the Universitat de Barcelona held a workshop on the sociology of organizations, while Begoña Barragán (the President of the Spanish Patients’ Association) and Guadalupe Morales (the President of Mundo Bipolar) looked at the most effective strategies for promoting patients’ organizations at the national and international level.

The third key session of the training programme was titled “Influence and Communication”. UIC lecturer Pablo Medina examined important aspects of corporate communications for healthcare organizations, while fellow UIC lecturers Drs. Marta Elorduy and Montserrat Virumbrales gave a presentation on competences with regard to doctor-patient communication. Alipio Gutiérrez, the President of ANIS, argued that in today’s world communication must be audiovisual or else it is considered prehistoric, and stressed the importance of understanding the nature of the media in order to be able to inform society better.  

The fourth session, “Leadership”, promoted strategies to achieve integration through employment. The speakers included Isabel Rodríguez (FEAFES Empleo) and Jaume Plana (Moltacte), who reaffirmed their commitment to promoting effective rehabilitation for those affected by mental-health problems, while Elena O’Callaghan (the President of the ADHD Association of Catalonia) looked at how leading an organization implies good management of its emotional environment. The session also included a workshop on developing emotional skills, directed by Dr. José Luis Bimbela from the Andalusian School of Public Health.

Dr. Navarro, the Director of the Albert J. Jovell Institute for Patients and Public Health, who also directed the seminar, gave a talk on the subject of leadership. “It is important to train leaders of change, who can establish collaborative networks with other organizations, institutions and professionals in order to promote mental health and reduce the social stigma suffered by those affected by mental illness”, she said.

The event concluded with a workshop directed by Emilia Arrighi, who discussed the social impact of each of the patients’ associations represented at the seminar. This was followed by the closing ceremony, whose participants included Roser Vallés, the General Director of Healthcare Organization and Regulation at the Government of Catalonia.