Presentation by Prof. José Luis Ayuso-Mateos at the EU Event “Mental health and the pandemic: living, caring, acting!”

Prof. José Luis Ayuso-Mateos, member of the RESPOND consortium and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Hospital Universitario de la Princesa, has given a presentation entitled “Essential Mental Health Service Delivery during the COVID-19 Outbreak and Response: Lessons Learned from Spain” at the Mental health and the pandemic: living, caring, acting! event, which took place today.

Prof. Ayuso-Mateos discussed the impact of COVID-19 on mental health service delivery in Spain, which was particularly hard hit by the first wave of the pandemic. He highlighted that there is an urgent need to scale up telemedicine and to prioritize the protection of patients and staff. Additionally, infectious disease preparedness training for mental healthcare staff is needed, as well as centralized decision-making and short to medium-term planning.

To view the presentation, as well as other presentations from the event, please click on the following link: https://eumentalhealth2021.eu/live and select the 14:00-15:30 session entitled “Responding – health systems fit to meet future mental health needs”.