Adolescence is one of the key developmental stages in human development, entailing a series of physical, cognitive, emotional and social changes that affect the course of teens lives.
Poor mental health in adolescence can impact directly on the development of this stage and limit an adolescent’s potential with negative consequences, such as deterioration of social function, poor educational achievement, unemployment, substance abuse, self-harm and violence.

Within the “+ Basket, Educate in Sport” project from the Hispanic English school, Alexia Toledo, psychologist at Fundación En Pie and Akoran Abreu, member and patron of the
Foundation, imparted a talk to students at the school of the program they are developing in “Early detection of mental health problems in adolescence”.

They discussed how to detect these disorders at an early age. Alexia gave her professional standpoint explaining to the children the signs and causes of mental health problems, and Akoran informed them from her personal account of the experiences of a serious mental disorder.

Translation by Leigh Rogers, our new volunteer