The UNR launched a podcast that highlights the importance of supporting adolescents at the first level of care.
La Universidad Nacional de Rosario launched the podcast “First Listen. A podcast about mental health”, created by teachers and researchers from the Faculty of Psychology and members of the Audiovisual Communication Department with the support of UNICEF Argentina, which seeks to highlight the importance of supporting adolescents at the first level. of attention.
The podcasts are based on a Valid identity document, which was prepared in 2023, which arises from an agreement between the National Directorate of Comprehensive Approach to Mental Health and Problematic Consumption, dependent at that time on the Ministry of Health of the Nation, the Faculty of Psychology of the UNR, and UNICEF. “This document deals with guidelines for the first hearing in mental health and accompaniment in adolescence, and fundamentally we worked on returning to the concerns and interests of the adolescents themselves. At the starting point, concerns and problems were taken up that were expressed in the National Youth Council where adolescents from all over the country participated. That is why we start from their own visions and their opinions later socialized in a Situation Diagnosis prepared by the Advisory Council for Adolescent and Youth Health (CONSAJU) of the National Ministry of Health," explained teacher Sandra Gerlero.
These guidelines function as guides to promote work at the first level of care, focusing on adolescents and that can be useful for workers who work in social organizations, educational and/or health institutions. “It is the resource for a first connection with adolescence, a first dialogue that can happen in multiple spaces (recess, a consultation with the teacher, in a primary care center, etc.) and I think it is important to be prepared. For this reason, podcasts are intended for a very broad audience of different social actors, who meet and have contact with adolescents in the territory.”
The strategy of addressing this content through the production of a podcast is linked to the need to not have to wait for adolescents to formally consult the health system. “Many times, the problems mean that in the first instance they do not go with a specific demand or approach with a formal request at a health center or a hospital institution. Despite this, there are expressions of suffering and discomfort that go through them, so in this framework the idea is to provide resources to workers who do not have specialized training so that they can generate adequate listening and, then, a correct referral within of the health system,” contributed teacher Cecilia Augsburger.
The specialists highlighted that the first listening is already an important intervention that can be the beginning of continuity for dialogue, care, and accompaniment with that adolescent. “They are not problems identified in terms of mental disorders, but rather they are vital events and situations that adolescence goes through, typical of life experiences,” Gerlero clarified.
Mental health is currently a widely visible problem that represents a social and health concern. In that sense, the professionals worked being very cautious about not producing a need to pathologize this situation. “We invite this meeting and the possibility of dialogue without thinking about the need to establish diagnoses. We seek to suspend that need to be able to find and receive what worries or causes suffering in that young person,” explained Augsburger.
The team as a whole carried out an identification of the problems that appear most frequently historically and those that are emerging in nature. “We distinguish that the link with substance consumption is a frequent problem in health services, in schools, and in social organizations in different neighborhoods. Also, self-harm, cuts on the body, and suicide attempts," Gerlero pointed out and added: "Likewise, we were also able to highlight others such as situations of discrimination due to gender identity, due to processes linked to sexual choices, and the issues related to stigmatization in relation to bodily expressions.”
However, mental health problems do not end there, since there are others that are equally present but do not usually come to light as much, such as subjective crisis situations, which can be caused by situations of grief and anguish. “Many times young people cannot talk about what happens to them, and we try to address how to generate situations of dialogue so that they can talk about what distresses them. Also other situations that seem important to us are ruptures with the family environment or conflicts with the law. They are all a set of factors that can cause discomfort or suffering, although they are not necessarily the most frequent,” added the psychologist.
A proposal that invites dialogue
“It is designed to generate greater possibilities of dissemination, communication and expansion from this work, with the idea that it will be used by a larger group of workers and young people. This is a format that we believe is friendlier and closer,” explained Augsburger.
The podcast was prepared by a team of professionals from the Faculty of Psychology made up of Cecilia Augsburger, Ana Bloj, Marianela Fondato, Sandra Gerlero, and Guillermina Olavarría, together with the members of the Multimedia Communication Directorate of the Faculty of Psychology. Universidad Nacional de Rosario: Patricio Irisarri, Anahí Lovato and Analía Martínez Fittipaldi. It also had the support of Unicef Argentina.
It has four episodes and was intended as a tool in itself, but that can also serve as an element to work in other areas, such as a workshop or a group dynamic. “It has a double advantage, on the one hand it generates a more dynamic way of accessing this knowledge, but in addition, it is also a bridge to expand the information to the original document and function as a bridge for interest,” highlighted Gerlero.
For it to come to light, the participation of the Multimedia Communication Department was key, who helped in the script, voice-over, organization and final production of the podcast. ” At all times we seek to ensure that the protagonist in the podcast is a human voice, which through tone, enunciation, and rhythm transmits warmth and invites dialogue. It is an invitation to have that time, to meet another and generate an exchange,” commented Augsburger.
The podcast has the voices of young people who narrate different situations they go through, they relate moments of anguish, uncertainty, they ask themselves questions, something that is extremely enriching for the content. All episodes of “First Listen” are now available on Spotify. They can be accessed directly through https://open.spotify.com/show/2wlj7ksSDrAlKlYjLbJzmN
Something that algorithms don't understand
A few weeks ago, former TV panelist Connie Ansaldi presented an application called “CUX” that offers psychological assistance based on artificial intelligence, which generated strong controversy and rejection for wanting to address something as sensitive as mental health.
“There are several considerations that are not taken into account by artificial intelligence. Firstly, that there is a singularity, that in each context and situation depending on their particular trajectories, they are totally different, unique and unrepeatable that require attention to the specifics of that subject. Then there is a whole very important legal regulation around adolescents, which protects them, safeguards their privacy, and respects their rights. All of these elements are established in the encounter with an adult who has a responsibility, where there is a degree of respectful and democratic asymmetry in that listening, and they are aspects that are not present in that technology,” Augsburger said.
For her part, Sandra Gerlero highlighted another fundamental issue, which is the intersubjective relationship, which is also outside the parameters of technology. “We are social beings, and in that relationship it is the possibility of working on the construction of mental health problems. When these technological means are proposed, we do not know how they are generated or based on what ethical standard they work. The mental health approach is carried out under a solid base of regulations, authorizations, trained workers and professionals intervene, meetings are generated under certain standards. None of this is regulated on a platform that relies on artificial intelligence.”
Journalist: Gonzalo J. García/Photographer: Camila Casero.