Catalonia, Spain

QualityRights in Catalonia

Achievements to date:

Here’s an improved version with the requested adjustments:

To address the growing mental health and emotional well-being challenges in Catalonia and align with WHO, OECD, and UNICEF guidelines, Catalonia has established a National Pact on Mental Health and Emotional Well-being (PNSM).

This initiative marks a critical shift in mental health policy, prioritizing the rights and holistic needs of people with mental health conditions. The approach recognizes each person’s unique abilities, emphasizes peer support, and fosters shared decision-making between individuals and professionals.

The National Pact introduces an intersectoral, interdepartmental strategy that extends beyond traditional health policies, focusing on prevention and early detection across diverse community resources, including extracurricular programmes, civic centers, children’s centers, centers for older persons, libraries, and more.

Each department in the Catalan Government is expected to develop clear mental health and well-being strategies, ensuring coordinated, cross-sectoral efforts. The Pact emphasizes prevention, sustained support for families and caregivers, training for all professionals on WHO’s QualityRights Initiative, and mental health first aid for the broader population.

The PNSM has six prioritized strategic lines:

  • Participation and empowerment. A person-centered approach that emphasizes the experiences of persons with mental health challenges.
  • Prevention and promotion at all ages of the person’s life/transitions across all ages and life stages, with a focus on addressing social and structural determinants impacting mental health.
  • Ensuring accessible, high-quality mental health services.
  • Delivering comprehensive, adaptable services within community settings, with a responsive and efficient service portfolio.
  • Establishing effective leadership and governance in mental health.
  • Strengthening data systems, scientific research, and innovation in mental health, with a forward-looking approach.

QualityRights face-to-face training

Obertament, the Catalan alliance against stigma, has been appointed to coordinate the adaptation and delivery of WHO QualityRights face-to-face training.

  • In 2023, the QualityRights training was tailored to the Catalonian context by adding locally relevant elements to the core and specialized training. This contextual adaptation was guided by experts, including persons with lived experience, community and hospital mental health professionals, and support organizations.
  • In 2024 and 2025, the first “train-the-trainer” sessions will be held, preparing 100 mental health professionals and persons with lived experience to become QualityRights trainers.

QualityRights Website

In December 2023, SOM360 launched a QualityRights-dedicated website to offer accessible information, share good practices, and outline the Catalan Government’s strategy. SOM360 has 200,000 monthly users.

  • The site supports digital activities, including WHO webinars, and directs visitors to the QualityRights e-training website.
  • Available in both Catalan and Spanish, the site links with SOM360’s Human Rights in Mental Health and Stigma websites, providing a robust background for users.
  • All QualityRights e-training materials, also available in Catalan and Spanish, are accessible in SOM360’s Resource Center.
  • SOM360 promotes WHO QualityRights training webinars and offers technical support for these events, with translations into Catalan and Spanish available via YouTube playlists.

QualityRights Awareness Campaign

  • Obertament has developed a public communication campaign to raise awareness about QualityRights and the rights of people with mental health conditions.
  • SOM360, which as over 16,500 social media followers, actively promotes QualityRights and its e-training across social media to increase public understanding.

Next Steps (2024-2026)

  • Continue WHO QualityRights training for new trainers.
  • Roll out the QualityRights public communication campaign.
  • Train professionals across all government departments.
  • Adapt Catalan mental health policies and legislation to align with QualityRights standards.