The Universidad Pontificia Comillas, in collaboration with Laboratorios Farmacéuticos ROVI, has created a new Chair of Innovation and Digital Mental Health to respond to the psychological effects that digitalization may have on society. Additionally, this Chair will also analyze how technology can help improve mental health, life quality, and the care provided to all people.
“We are at a historical moment because the global effects of the pandemic have caused great psychological damage to our society and because, for the first time, one of the primary objectives of the Government and public and private institutions is to allocate human and financial resources to improve mental health in Spain”, said Dr. Lucía Halty, the Chair’s director.
The new Chair at Comillas has the support of Laboratorios Farmacéuticos ROVI. For its Chairman and CEO, Juan López-Belmonte, “this project represents an opportunity to obtain deeper knowledge of the impact of the new technologies on mental health in our society. In addition, it allows us to enhance the dialogue in the academic, healthcare and workplace contexts regarding current models for mental health detection, preventionprevention, and intervention.
The COVID-19 crisis has shown that the traditional model of access to healthcare resources, particularly psychological resources, needs to evolve. Companies and institutions should redesign the system and introduce new technologies to ensure progress and continuing improvement. Technology and mental health should go hand in hand to improve the care that people receive.
The Chair of Innovation and Mental Health at Comillas spans a good number of faculties and university disciplines. Although the greatest weight of the Chair will be borne by the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences (Comillas CIHS), the Faculties of Engineering (Comillas ICAI) and Law (Comillas ICADE), as well as the San Juan de Dios School of Nursiing and Physiotherapy, will also be involved. Thus, mental health will be approached from a multi-disciplinary holistic perspective that seeks to ensure people’s wellbeing in a digitalised environment