Spain to spend €39 million on metal health to help suffering workforce
Health
The Spanish government has approved new funding for mental healthcare as new data shows that mental health leave among the country's workforce has spiralled by 175 percent since the pandemic, costing taxpayers €15 billion a year.
The Spanish cabinet on Tuesday announced that it would spend €39 million in order to strengthen mental healthcare treatment availability in public hospitals.
It also approved another €17.83 million for the implementation of suicide prevention measures, in line with Spain's Mental Health Action Plan 2025-2027 and the Suicide Prevention Plan 2025-2027.
Mental health cover is one of the biggest gaps in the public health system in Spain and it seems though people are suffering because of this.
According to the latest data from the 2023 National Health System Annual Report, 34 percent of the Spanish population has some form of mental health issue.
According to the Ministry of Health, the most common mental health problem is anxiety which affects 6.7 percent of the population with public health cover.
Depression is seen in 4.1 percent of the population and increases with age, while sleep disorders affect 5.4 percent of the population and also increases with age.
Psychoses overall affects 1.2 percent, while dementia is recorded in 3.2 percent of the population aged 60 and over.
The number of workers on sick leave has continued to rise since the pandemic and particularly mental health leave has risen by 175 percent.
The cost for the health authorities has continued to skyrocket. Public spending as a result of these absences amounts to around €15 billion per year and has increased by almost 80 percent since the pandemic, while the direct impact on businesses has grown by 62 percent, to €4.6 billion.
Particularly worrying is the incidence among young people, which has doubled in recent years.
Spaniards are also the world's biggest consumers of anti-anxiety medication and the EU's largest consumers of psychiatric or psychotropic medication, which includes antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, stimulants, antipsychotics, and mood stabilisers.
According to the latest r eport from the Bank of Spain, 4.4 percent of workers are currently on sick leave and in 2019 it was only 2.7 percent. In total, more than 1.5 million people are on temporary disability. This is equivalent to half of the public administration.
Patricia Ruiz, Secretary of Occupational Health for Spanish trade union UGT explains that, 'Stress, depression, anxiety' are the worst culprits.
According to the data, incidence among those under 35 is striking. 'Mental health issues have increased by 325 percent in young people' she warns.
The UGT have criticised the system saying "There's no follow-up, no attention to their ailments. It's just like they're waiting to go through a formality'.
Long waiting lists in public healthcare have also made the situation worse.
Yolanda Díaz, Minister of Labour, acknowledges that waiting lists are very long. "It also has to do with mental health. We live in stressed societies', and we have "aging" labour markets she explains.
The hope is that by spending money on increasing health programmes and the medical professionals to deal with these issues, less people will suffer and need to go on leave from work.
See Also
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Local Spain
10 hours ago
- Local Spain
Spanish police enter ruling Socialist HQ in corruption probe
A police report released last week implicated Socialist heavyweight Santos Cerdán and ex-transport minister Jose Luis Ábalos in receiving kickbacks in the improper awarding of public contracts. In a ruling issued on Friday, a Supreme Court judge ordered the Civil Guard to clone the contents of Cerdán's work email account at the Socialist headquarters. The judge also requested information on Cerdán's bank accounts and wealth, summoning him to testify on June 30th, and instructed officers to clone Ábalos's email account at the transport ministry. The images of police entering Socialist headquarters are damaging for an administration that came to power in 2018 promising to clean up Spanish politics after the rival conservative Popular Party (PP) was convicted in its own graft affair. Cerdán has relinquished his powerful post as Socialist organisation secretary and as an MP. The party has definitively expelled Ábalos. The scandal has shaken the minority coalition with far-left formation Sumar and relations with an array of leftist and regional separatist parties the government depends on to pass legislation. Legal investigations are also underway against Sánchez's wife, brother and Socialist-appointed top prosecutor. But the Socialist premier, one of Europe's longest-serving leftist leaders, has rebuffed demands from the PP and far-right party Vox to resign and call early elections.
Local Spain
a day ago
- Local Spain
EU slams Spain for taxing non-residents on theoretical property earnings
The European Commission has said that it is "discriminatory" for Spain to tax non-resident foreigners on the value of their Spanish homes even if they don't earn income letting them out. According to Brussels, the non-resident tax rule violates the fundamental principles of the European Union, including the freedom of movement of workers and capital. The commission has demanded that the Spanish authorities modify their non-resident income tax (IRNR), specifically when it comes to real estate income. Spanish law states that non-fiscal residents have to pay tax of up to 2 percent of the cadastral value of their Spanish homes, even if they make any rental income from them. This 2 percent of the cadastral value would be 1.1 percent if the cadastral value has been revised within the last 10 years. The Spanish Treasury is essentially just charging non-residents a tax for theoretical income, even if they are not making any money from renting out their second home while not using it. However, this rule also affects Spanish residents who have a second home in Spain. For example, a Spanish fiscal resident who has their habitual residence in Barcelona but has a second home in Málaga would pay the aforementioned tax on the latter, even if they didn't make any money from it while not using it. Therefore, some commentators in Spain have said that the tax is not prejudicial at all for non-tax residents. An unfair tax for everyone perhaps, but not discriminatory towards non-residents or foreigners per se. The reason why Brussels may consider it discriminatory for non-residents with second homes in Spain is perhaps the fact that these people presumably pay any income tax derived from letting it out any of the properties they own in their own country of fiscal residence. There's also the fact that in most cases their Spanish home will be their habitual residence during the periods they spend in Spain, and in many cases their one and only Spanish property. The EU believes Hacienda's non-resident tax on theoretical earnings is incompatible with the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA). Specifically, the Commission invokes Articles 45 and 63 of the TFEU, which guarantees the free movement of workers and capital. It also cites Articles 28 and 40 of the EEA Agreement, which provide similar guarantees for countries in the extended economic area that are not part of the EU, such as Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. They argue that this tax could discourage non-EU citizens from investing or temporarily moving to Spain and creates a barrier to the freedom of movement. The Commission has urged Spanish authorities to correct the situation within a maximum of two months. If the EU find the response does not solve the problem though, they may consider starting further proceedings at the European Court of Justice. Whatever happens, it certainly indicates what could happen to the Spanish government's plans to introduce a 100 percent property tax on home buyers who reside outside of the EU, a proposed measure to help alleviate the current housing crisis. The so-called 'supertax' suggested by Spain's ruling Socialist party was officially presented in a draft proposal in the Congress in May. The text confirmed that the 100 percent would be applied to the taxable base or value of the property itself, not on the property transfer tax. This would effectively double the price of the property for these buyers. The document specified that it would be a 'State Complementary Tax on the Transfer of Real Estate to Non-Residents of the European Union'. This suggests that EU residency determines this extra property tax, rather than EU citizenship. Incredibly, if a Spanish citizen who lives in the UK wanted to buy a holiday home in Spain, they would be charged this 100 percent tax. In any case, this headline-grabbing 100 percent property tax would have to get approval in the Spanish Parliament, where Sánchez's PSOE have a weakened position, and there's every likelihood that Brussels could once again have the last word.
Local Spain
2 days ago
- Local Spain
Police officer investigated in Spain over suspect's chokehold death
A Madrid municipal police officer chased and caught the man who had allegedly stolen his phone overnight Tuesday to Wednesday, in Torrejón de Ardoz, just east of the Spanish capital, a National Police spokeswoman said. Video footage published by Spanish media shows the officer, dressed in plain clothes, pinning the man to the ground with his arm around the suspect's neck as he waits for on-duty police to arrive. Several bystanders can be heard pleading with the officer to release his grip. "You're going to suffocate the guy, man. Let go of his neck," one person shouts. Another can be heard saying: "He's not going to run away. Just let him go." When National Police officers arrived, the suspect was unresponsive. Emergency services were called but were unable to revive him. Emergency services confirmed on social network X that a 36-year-old man had died of asphyxiation in Torrejón de Ardoz after 30 minutes of attempted resuscitation failed to reverse cardiac arrest. Authorities said they were waiting for preliminary autopsy results to determine the exact cause of death. The death has sparked outrage among left-wing groups in the Madrid region, governed by the conservative Popular Party. The left-wing Mas Madrid party demanded an investigation into the "apparent asphyxiation killing by a police officer". "If confirmed, this would be a very serious case of racist police violence resulting in the death of a North African man," the party added on X. A local left-wing group has called for a protest in Torrejón on Saturday, describing the incident as a "racist killing at the hands of police". A judge on Thursday released the officer, who has not been named publicly, while he is investigated for negligent homicide, the Madrid High Court of Justice said. The judge ordered the officer to turn in his passport and report to the authorities weekly.
