Santa Cruz Educasalud Program Hailed as Youth Mental Health Model
The Educasalud program in Santa Cruz de Tenerife has successfully provided early mental health support to over 5,500 students in its first year, leading to calls for its expansion across the Canary Islands.
The Educasalud program in Santa Cruz de Tenerife is becoming a key model for helping young people with their mental health early on. Launched in April 2025, this program, a joint effort by the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council and the Official College of Psychologists of Tenerife, has shown great success in its first year. It proves that tackling emotional well-being directly in schools is effective and beneficial.
In its first year, the program reached more than 5,500 students in the area, providing 237 individual psychological support sessions. These sessions addressed common problems like anxiety, school bullying, suicide attempts, attention issues often linked to mobile phone use, and difficult family situations. The program also trained around 600 teachers, held over 140 workshops, and ran 293 preventative sessions.
Mayor José Manuel Bermúdez highlighted the value of this early approach. He explained that it helps identify potential problems before they get worse and gives teachers, students, and their families the skills to handle personal and school difficulties. The Mayor called for the Educasalud program to be expanded across the Canary Islands. He believes that by working together, local councils, island governments, and the regional government can improve the mental health of all young people in the region.
Charín González, the Councillor for Education, confirmed the city's dedication to keeping the program going. She noted that while mental health and education often fall outside typical local council responsibilities, the city is committed to it. Educasalud has been allocated 80,000 euros for 2026, with plans to extend it to high schools in the capital.
Carmen Linares, President of the Official College of Psychologists of Tenerife, explained that around 40 professionals are involved in running the program. She stressed how crucial it is to support mental health within schools. Linares emphasized the need for permanent educational psychologists in schools. She argued that identifying serious issues, including suicide attempts, requires immediate and coordinated psychological help, which would be hard to provide without these specialists on site. The psychologists' work has covered emotional education, promoting good relationships, preventing bullying, and helping students manage personal problems and suicide risks.