El movimiento asociativo Salud Mental Castilla y León traslada a S.M. la Reina Doña Letizia la importancia de tejer redes frente al suicidio

Today we had the honor of participating in an audience at the Zarzuela Palace with Her Majesty Queen Letizia, in a joint meeting with our Mental Health Confederation Spain, as well as professionals, entities and people deeply committed to suicide prevention.

This space for listening and recognition has been a valuable opportunity to give visibility to the work we have been developing for years, defending rights, accompanying suffering and building community.

During the meeting, we conveyed to His Majesty an idea that underpins all our action: Suicide prevention cannot be limited to crisis intervention. Prevention involves closeness, listening, mutual support and, fundamentally, the creation of safe community environments. significant knit a red where people can ask for help in time, families do not face the situation alone, professionals have the necessary tools and society knows how to look and accompany with responsibility.

Under this premise, we share the main lines of work structured by the Federation in recent years, such as the preparation of our internal guide and protocol in 2022, and the development of the project in 2023 and 2024. «Second Chances«with the support of the Mutua Madrileña Foundationaimed at planning and coordinating a rigorous intervention model against suicide in Castilla y León.

Combat unwanted loneliness through mutual support

One of the central topics addressed at the reception was the unwanted impact of loneliness as one of the great vulnerability factors in mental health contemporary. This loneliness, which is often not chosen but caused by stigma or fear of rejectionIt becomes even more devastating and loaded with guilt and silence in those people who have lost a loved one to suicide.

Faced with this reality, we highlight the essential role of Mutual Aid Groups (GAM). These spaces offer something unique such as the concept of the shared experience. In a GAM, people meet peers who have gone through similar experiences, managing to validate their pain and transform the «This only happens to me» in a hopeful «I’m not alone, I’m not alone».

We valued the consolidated experiences of the group “Voices about Suicide” from our Palencia Mental Health association —a mixed space with an open dialogue approach—as well as similar initiatives in Mental Health León and ASOVICA Mental Health Soria. In addition, we exposed the current push for new Postvention Mutual Aid Groupsdesigned with a special look towards the rural environment in our associations Mental Health Aranda de Duero, Mental Health Miranda and El Puente Mental Health Valladolid in its Medina del Campo delegation. In these territories, where geographical dispersion and stigma isolate even more, these groups are a key tool to ensure that Nobody grieves in silence.

Training, awareness and multisector alliances

Addressing suicide requires a coordinated response that involves all sectors of society. For this reason, we share with Her Majesty the Queen the training and awareness initiatives that we keep active.

• Health training: From 2024, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the Regional Health Managementwe have trained more than 400 Primary Care professionals in community prevention. Likewise, in 2025 and looking ahead to this year, we add Specific training on self-harm and suicidal ideation in children and adolescentsa group whose suffering and exposure to digital environments primarily concerns us.
• University awareness and media: We detail the prevention campaigns implemented together with the universities of Valladolid (UVA) and León (ULE)under the firm message that talking about suicide responsibly opens doors to help and saves lives. Likewise, we report on the development of a manual for media next to the Ministry of Healthin order to promote a careful and preventive informative treatment.
• Educational field: We explain our participation in the Link Network in Castilla y Leónthrough which we intervene with speed, discretion and care in the schools in situations of attempted or completed suicideprotecting the educational community.

We deeply thank HM Queen Letizia for her warmth, attentive listening and recognition of the work of the associative movement. As a Federation, we reaffirm our commitment to providing proximity, territorial capillarity and a deeply human perspective. We will continue to work tirelessly to build spaces where suffering can be named without fear, where bonds are recovered and where each life finds real opportunities of protection, support and hope.