“With the physical we can reach the psychic”

“We have also incorporated physiotherapists into the Commission to design action plans in Mint Healthl within our healthcare system. “We need a comprehensive approach that addresses physical and mental well-being.” This is how Mónica García, Minister of Health, announced in Spanish Association of Physiotherapists in Mental Health (AEFSM) has been a “very pleasant surprise” and a “historical milestone” not only for its specialtybut also for Spanish physiotherapy and mental health in general. For the first time, its president assures ConSalud.es, Miguel Muñoz-Cruzadothey are recognized for something they have been fighting for for a long time: to demonstrate that mental health and physical do not exist separately, but as part of a single health.

“We cannot treat mental disorders only from the point of view of psychiatry or psychology. The human being is a wholean enormous compendium, and these two concepts will always go together,” says the expert and director of the Department of Psychiatry and Physiotherapy of the University of Malaga (UMA). To do this, he gives two specific examples: “When someone breaks a leg, that is a physical act. But who then takes away fears and worry What will the future hold for you? It is the same as a person who is depressed, who physically tends to have their head down, their shoulders forward…,” he points out.

“The human being is a whole, a huge compendium, and the concepts of physical and mental health will always go together”

Miguel Muñoz-Cruzado was, in 2007, the first person to prepare a doctoral thesis that brought together both concepts. Now he is the highest representative of a scientific society to which the Minister of Health herself thanked on social networks for their “work and commitment” to incorporate these specialists into the Commission. “With the physical we can reach the psychicbecause they exist as one thing, and, as Mónica has indicated, we all have to work for it,” insists the Andalusian physiotherapist.

HISTORY OF AN INCLUSION

“We want to recognize the Ministry of Health and its minister for the determined drive to improve mental health, hoping that our scientific-care effort will contribute to this objective. “We continue working to integrate physical health into mental health care,” the profile of the Spanish Association of Mental Health Physiotherapists then responded, a message that he later reposted. Monica Garcia.

It was they, however, who asked the Ministry to be part of this Commission, and not the other way around. It all started a few months ago, when the president of the AEFSM learned of the existence of the Commission and he wondered why there was no physiotherapist there. “The Ministry’s response was almost immediate.. They sent us a letter saying that they wanted to receive us to talk about the issue, and I attended the meeting accompanied by Fernando Ramos and of Daniel Catalanpresidents of the Spanish Association of Physiotherapists and the International Organization of Physiotherapy in Mental Health,” recalls Miguel Muñoz Cruzado.

This meeting, affirms the expert, was marked by good harmony and the “want to listen” by the technical secretary of the Mental Health Commission: “He was very interested in everything we told him, he continually asked us things, and in the end we gave him a dossier that included all the scientific evidence there is about the specialty. They have been very sensitive to our request”, he highlights.

“The important thing is that things get done later”

They were already informed then of the Ministry’s intention for the AEFSM to form part of the Commission. What its president did not expect is that it was Mónica who would do the social media adwith everything that this can mean in terms of visibility: the minister has almost 220,000 followers, and more than 24,000 people saw the post. “It seemed to us a extraordinary gesture and quite a declaration of intentions, without a doubt, but we are still in the theoretical field. The important thing is that things are done later,” explains the expert from a health specialty who, like many others, continually struggles to be able to really put all his ideas into practice. In fact, they still do not know what their specific role in the Commission will be.

“We will try to contribute our grain of sand from the physiotherapyand of course we will be there when we are called for a meeting. We have a lot to say, and not only from the point of view of care, but also of prevention and research,” says Muñoz-Cruzado. “Since 2007, many doctoral theses have been done on physiotherapy and mental health, and it would be very interesting if they were taken into account in the Primary Care centers”, he adds.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THOSE WHO ALREADY ARE

And that is, the president laments, his great impediment: the little knowledge there is about the specialty, precisely because its presence in the National Health System is, today, something “testimonial”. “I have met people who have told me that the problem is that physiotherapy wants to be everywhereand that we already have enough with rheumatology or pulmonology. Or that there is no money, when we We are not asking you to invest more money or that they hire more people, but that they offer some of the physiotherapists who are already in the public system to switch to mental health,” claims Muñoz Cruzado.