Francisco Jose Eiroa Orosa

University of Barcelona | UB · Section of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment; Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology

Introduction Mental health models grounded in Recovery and Rights are driving the advancement of transformative care systems through multifaceted actions, which encompass Continuing Professional Development. The objective of this work is to evaluate a training activity developed through a participatory process that included people with lived experi...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how mental health is tied to citizenship, and to help professionals understand mental health in the context of social rights and responsibilities, to move towards a right-based practice. Design/methodology/approach The author will explore the concept of citizenship together with mental health ser...

The facilitator's training for peer support workers in mental health course was a recovery-based initiative addressed to professionalize peer support in Catalonia, Spain. Our aim was to elicit participants' motivations, significant learnings, and opinions regarding the training programme. A qualitative approach was used through content and thematic...

The history of mental health care has been marked by various struggles in maintaining the dignity of service users. Some reform movements have started to use educational strategies aimed at the beliefs and attitudes of professionals, as well as changing the way that practice is carried out. This paper intends to systematically review and synthesize...

We aimed at developing and validating a scale on the beliefs and attitudes of mental health professionals towards services users’ rights in order to provide a valid evaluation instrument for training activities with heterogeneous mental health professional groups. Items were extracted from a review of previous instruments, as well as from several f...

Background The rights of mental health service users are a subject of profound debate. In this article, we aim to examine mental health professionals’ perspectives, opinions, and attitudes on the state of service users’ rights. Methods We conducted a thematic analysis of eleven focus groups involving mental health professionals. Results Through t...

L’estigma que pateixen les persones amb diagnòstics de salut mental és quelcom freqüent dins l’àmbit sanitari. Entitats i campanyes de lluita contra l’estigma han centrat els seus esforços en la disminució de la discriminació en aquest àmbit. La figura de l’activista és fonamental per tal de que les pròpies persones que han experimentat aquest esti...

This study assessed the effectiveness of a psychosocial multicomponent program designed to empower individuals experiencing severe mental distress and their relatives throughout the recovery process. The program consisted of four consecutive interventions, including orientation, psychoeducation, empowerment, and mutual help. A randomized controlled...

The concept of acculturative stress has been the subject of debate, resulting in contradictory arguments regarding its measurement. Many of the existing acculturative stress instruments have been developed for use with specific migrant groups. The objective of the current study is to revisit the psychometric properties of the Barcelona Immigration...

Urban-living individuals are exposed to many environmental factors that may combine and interact to influence mental health. While individual factors of an urban environment have been investigated in isolation, no attempt has been made to model how complex, real-life exposure to living in the city relates to brain and mental health, and how this is...

En el contexto de las discusiones sobre la implementación de la formación y formas de incorporación en el sistema sanitario de Cataluña de agentes de apoyo entre iguales en salud mental o pares, entre 2020 y 2021, se llevó a cabo una revisión de literatura y, de forma complementaria, entrevistas a expertos tanto a nivel internacional como en el Est...

Gastrointestinal patients, especially those diagnosed with functional digestive disorders (FGIDs), usually present a complex clinical picture that poses a challenge for their management in primary care. The main objective of the current research was to examine the relationship of the congruence of the perception of severity and quality of life betw...

The aim of this study is to show the type of care tasks related to the burden and the social support of the caregiver of a person with a mental disorder. Methods: Cross-sectional study in which data were collected from 224 care units (primary caregiver/patient) who were being followed up in Catalonia. Interviews were conducted using the Family Burd...

Relatives play an important role in the recovery journey of mental health service users. Interventions directed either at service users or their relatives may influence the other person as well. The project ‘Activa’t per la salut mental’ (Get active for mental health) consisted of a series of four interventions addressed at people diagnosed with me...

Relatives play an important role in mental health service users’ care. Interventions directed either at service users or their relatives may influence the other person as well. The project Activa’t per la salut mental (Get active for mental health) consisted of a series of four interventions addressed at people diagnosed with mental disorders and t...

Subjective perception is considered a key element in the prediction of resistant or vulnerable responses to trauma and crisis. This study aimed to assess the relationship between perceived physical life threat and perceived life impact with posttraumatic stress disorder symptomatology in a sample of 3.565 persons from 12 countries across 9 differen...

Functional gastrointestinal symptoms (FGIDs) refer to a noticeable change in the body that is reported by the patient as being different from normal. FGIDs can have a significant impact on the patient’s quality of life by interfering with daily functioning. The primary objective of the current paper was to identify short-term educational interventi...

International and national humanitarian aid workers were recruited for this study through purposive sampling techniques using social media. Eight interviews and one focus group discussion were carried out (n=13), and a survey disseminated (n=62), to gather a broad range of perspectives on barriers for aid workers in seeking out and accessing psycho...

The current study aims to: 1) investigate cognitive differences among adolescents at risk for suicide versus healthy controls (HC) and 2) identify cognitive changes associated with response to psychotherapy among adolescents at high risk for suicide. Thirty-five adolescents at high risk for suicide (HR), and 14 HC adolescents were recruited. Clinic...

Although it may seem paradoxical, primary care and mental health professionals develop prejudices and discriminatory attitudes towards people with mental health problems in a very similar way to the rest of the population. The main objective of this project was to design, implement and evaluate two awareness-raising interventions respectively tailo...

Although it may seem paradoxical, primary care and mental health professionals develop prejudices and discriminatory attitudes towards people with mental health problems in a very similar way to the rest of the population. The main objective of this project was to design, implement and evaluate two awareness interventions respectively tailored to r...

Purpose. Subjective perception is considered a key element in the prediction of resistant or vulnerable responses to trauma and crisis. This study aimed to assess the relationship between perceived physical life threat (PT) and perceived life impact (PI) with post-traumatic symptomatology (PTSD), in a sample of 3.565 persons from 12 countries acros...

This Special Issue deals with the topic of how people and social groups face problems in an increasingly complex and globalized society. The topics included in the call for papers were the interaction of psychosocial well-being and mental health with economic, gender, racial and ethnic inequalities, migration and demographic change and conflict and...

Wellbeing and citizenship have been outlined as important components for personal flourishing and involvement in community life. The Community Engagement Project aimed to identify the strength of the relationship between wellbeing and citizenship. In addition, the study aimed to investigate the capability of changing wellbeing and citizenship level...

The relationship of problematic cannabis consumption with perceived risk, socioenvironmental and sociodemographic factors among youth in Spain is not well known. The aims of this study are: 1) to describe the patterns of cannabis consumption (problematic and non-problematic) in Spanish youth, and 2) to explore whether problematic cannabis consumpti...

Introduction Substance abuse among medical professionals is common and can lead to malpractice. The study of identity conflicts developed by the Psychology of Personal Constructs could explain part of this problem. Objectives This study aims to describe the medical professionals who abuse substances in terms of their personal construing process an...

Aunque la narrativa dominante de los y las profesionales de la salud mental naturaliza y justifica el uso de la "contención mecánica" como "inevitable", los organismos internacionales de Derechos Humanos alertan de que, independientemente de su duración, constituye un trato cruel, inhumano y degradante que puede llegar al rango de tortura. Los cent...

This study aims to describe health professionals who abuse substances in terms of their personal construing process and other associated psychological measures. Thirty health professionals hospitalized because of a substance use disorder in a specialized clinic were recruited for this study. In the same way as in previous studies carried out in cli...

Recently, movements and concepts such as recovery, according to the use of the term coined by the consumer and survivor movements, citizenship (both as a participatory and therapeutic tools) or social prescription (among others), have expanded the range of therapeutic options in general practice and mental health by strengthening the links between...

Background: Despite the relevance of mobile technologies and social media (MTSM) for adolescents, their association with depressive disorders in this population remains unclear. While there are previous reviews that have identified the use of MTSM as a risk factor for developing depression, other reviews have indicated their possible preventive ef...

BACKGROUND Despite the relevance of mobile technologies and social media (MTSM) for adolescents, their association with depressive disorders in this population remains unclear. While there are previous reviews that have identified the use of MTSM as a risk factor for developing depression, other reviews have indicated their possible preventive effe...

Three studies made on services users and families’ situation in Catalonia (2009-2010) reflected a need to improve the Mental Health care system in relation to: the right to information, the recovery and life project approach, participation in care, and families interventions. Therefore, in 2015, the Catalan Government (Departments of Health and Soc...

The citizenship framework is an emerging trend in the fields of mental health and social inclusion. After various theoretical developments, instruments have been designed to measure individuals’ connection with the various dimensions of citizenship, and interventions have been designed to help practitioners work from this paradigm. In this article...

Efforts to improve the well-being of healthcare professionals include mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). To understand the value of such initiatives, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of empirical studies pertaining to the use of MBIs with healthcare professionals. Databases were reviewed from the start of records to January 2...

We aimed at developing and validating a scale on the beliefs and attitudes of mental health professionals towards services users’ rights in order to provide a valid evaluation instrument for training activities with heterogeneous mental health professional groups. Items were extracted from a review of previous instruments, as well as from several f...

We aimed at developing and validating a scale on the beliefs and attitudes of mental health professionals towards services users’ rights in order to provide a valid evaluation instrument for training activities with heterogeneous professional groups. Items were extracted from a review of previous instruments, as well as from several focus groups wh...

Given the demanding nature of many professions, efforts are ongoing to develop initiatives to improve occupational wellbeing, including mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). To assess the efficacy of MBIs, meta-analytic procedures were conducted on 35 randomized controlled trials derived from an earlier inclusive systematic literature search (cov...

Inter-disciplinary academic enquiry shares the challenge to explore the social and ethical applications of research into today’s globalised but increasingly complex world. Positive psychology examines how life can be well in this broader enquiry of the social and moral contexts of ‘individual’ happiness. In this it begins to embrace innovative, qua...

La intervención educativa forma parte de la práctica habitual de muchos profesionales que, en sus ámbitos específicos de actuación, se proponen planificar e implementar acciones que conduzcan a mejorar las oportunidades en la vida de las personas. Tanto en el ámbito de la educación formal como en el sociocomunitario y el laboral, el éxito de las in...

This research explores the outcome of positive visual reframing (PVR), a single session intervention where drawn images of negative experiences and open memories were redrawn and visually reframed to form new positive narratives. The study hypothesised that PVR would lead to improvements to positive and negative affect, self-efficacy and the percei...

In the last few decades, research on happiness and well-being has examined many important aspects of human flourishing. However, we believe that some underlying features have also been largely overlooked. In particular, three factors—namely, Context, Social Justice, and Values—do not figure prominently in most investigations of the good life. We fi...

Background The history of mental health care has been marked by various struggles for the dignity of service users. Some reform movements have started to use strategies aimed at professionals’ beliefs and attitudes change. This conference paper intends to systematically review and synthesize all information related to awareness-raising and training...

There is a strong interest in improving the quality of anti-stigma contact-based interventions. Hence, some mental health anti-stigma campaigns offer prior training to their activists with lived experience of mental disorders. Additionally, collective mobilization seems to impact the identity and well-being of its participants. The main objective o...

Despite some evidence that being an activist, particularly during adolescence, can positively affect well-being, activism has been relatively neglected in both psychology and youth civic engagement research. This study aimed to address this gap by exploring how being an activist as a teenager can positively affect personal development and well-bein...

Objective: Among efforts to improve the well-being of healthcare professionals are initiatives based around mindfulness meditation. To understand the value of such initiatives, we conducted a systematic review of empirical studies pertaining to mindfulness in healthcare professionals. Method: Databases were reviewed from the start of records to...

Transferring principles and practices to different sociocultural and professional contexts in the field of mental health can be very complex. Previous research on public health policy points to difficulties in different areas such as the understanding the new concepts, their applicability in different health systems, and suitable approaches to its...

Objectives Previous research on gastrointestinal and other medical conditions has shown the presence of incongruence between self- and clinician-reported functioning and its relation with psychopathology. The main objective of this study was to test whether inconsistencies between clinician- and self-assessed functionality can be used to detect psy...

We offer an overview of mental health first-person understood as training spaces in which people with experiences of extreme mental suffering share knowledge among themselves or offer training activities to professionals. Following an international and local historical journey, we offer some examples of our current activity in the Veus Federation o...

Documento entregado a la Comisión de Salud del Parlamento de Cataluña el día 11/05/2017. Comparecencia de representantes de la Federación Veus ante la Comisión de Salud para explicar el proyecto ”Contención mecánica 0” y las iniciativas y experiencias internacionales para la transformación de la red de salud mental.

The introduction of the psychiatric reform that allowed the deinstitutionalization of people with mental health problems and their reintegration into the community in the 1980s, as well as more recent professional and human rights movements such as Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery, made up by service users, their relatives and professionals...

After the sections addressing criticisms and proposals for a more balanced field of positive psychology, we are pleased to introduce our readers to the third and final part of this book. In this part we have gathered some experiences of the critical application of positive psychology at different levels, from interventions in community settings to...

Work can be demanding, imposing challenges that can be detrimental to the physical and mental health of workers. Efforts are therefore underway to develop practices and initiatives that may improve occupational wellbeing. These include interventions based on mindfulness meditation. This paper offers a systematic review of empirical studies featurin...

This study seeks to provide support to the two continua model of mental health. Participants were assessed before and after they received psychotherapy, measuring happiness, functioning, depression, and distress. All variables improved and showed significant differences according to conflicts’ resolution, but self-reported happiness was the only on...

Given the potentially demanding nature of teaching, efforts are underway to develop practices that can improve the wellbeing of educators, including interventions based on mindfulness meditation. We performed a systematic review of empirical studies featuring analyses of mindfulness in teaching contexts. Databases were reviewed from the start of re...

The purpose of the present study was to test the efficacy of an 8-week online intervention-based Positive Mindfulness Program (PMP) that integrated mindfulness with a series of positive psychology variables, with a view to improving well-being scores measured in these variables. The positive mindfulness cycle, based on positive intentions and savou...

Population ageing requires an understanding of the factors that enhance optimal functioning in later life. Moreover, for individual and societal well-being it demands a more balanced view of the ageing process that also accentuates human capital and realisation of potential. This study therefore explored the relationships between strengths use, men...

Immigrant homelessness constitutes a cruel expression of social exclusion. We analyzed the relation of sociodemographic characteristics with stressful life events, substance use and psychological distress, giving a special importance to the influence of the time spent on the streets and the accommodation status of 107 homeless immigrants. To this e...

En este artículo revisamos el contexto de las diferentes reformas realizadas en los sistemas de salud mental en los últimos 50 años, explicando sus implicaciones para la lucha por los derechos y la ciudadanía de los usuarios de servicios de salud mental. Por último, revisamos el uso y evidencias sobre las prácticas relacionadas con las preferencias...

Objectives: Group cohesion, the establishment of hope, and the expression of feelings have been said to be the basic ingredients of group psychotherapy. To date, there is few literature describing therapeutic processes in short stay settings such as acute psychiatric wards and with special patient groups such as addictions. Our goal with this stud...

Humanitarian work inevitably involves exposure to suffering, stress and trauma. Such exposure has a profound effect on an aid worker’s worldview and spirituality. The aim of this study was to use Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to do an in-depth analysis of how Christian young adult humanitarian workers in faith-based aid organizations exp...

Recently, movements and concepts such as recovery, according to the use of the term coined by the consumer and survivor move- ments, citizenship (both as a participatory and therapeutic tools) or social prescription (among others), have expanded the range of therapeutic options in general practice and mental health by strengthening the links betwee...

In a previous exploratory study we observed no relevant differences in psychopathology, personality, and functioning between inpatients diagnosed with gastrointestinal motor disorders (GMDs) or functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGDs) [1]. However, we observed higher levels of incongruence between clinician-assessed performance status and patie...

Psychological symptoms are common among burn survivors. However, knowledge about epidemiology and predictors of psychopathology has shown great heterogeneity in this population. The Fenix-II Project was the first epidemiological study on the psychopathological consequences of burns developed in Spain, providing a detailed analysis of the progressio...