What do the statistics tell us about our community?

More than half of the community of la Verneda y La Pau (54.74%) believe that there are enough health services in their area. When asked if there is a service which they feel is needed, people from the community said more specialized health services and more emergency services were needed. When asked about the context of drugs and alcohol ( given that this was an issue many people working in health had highlighted)people said they considered it as a problem, however only half of the community believe that there is a problematic in the community (52%). Many said the main reason was that it is a problem that remains visible in the community (43.81%).

In the focus groups carried out within the community, many said that unemployment impacting their mental health was a current concern along with the need to have spaces which help avoid people feeling lonely.

The various services and organisations that work in the area of health have expressed a need to improve collaboration with other organisations and thus exchange knowledge around health services. A suggestion given was to develop an attractive and high quality publication based on health in the community which disseminates information around health, cultural activities and existing resources in the community. Additionally, the organisations suggested that other stakeholders could be involved in this work, such as community centres, neighbourhood associations, among others. Another existing need in the community is the need for more public spaces to do sport (beginning with children from eight years old).

Stakeholders working on mental health highlighted the need to work more on aspects surrounding prevention and attention. This entails taking advantage of current resources within the community and strengthening the provision of free activities. Furthermore, they highlighted the need for a service in the community that can mediate and guide people on labour conflicts given that such issues often lead to mental health problems.

Two areas which were talked about the most are that of: the need to help the more vulnerable become financial literate (this includes microcredits, interest rates etc), in order to avoid them falling into fraudulent schemes. Additionally there is a need to look for solutions for this groups of people and to not leave them alone and isolated. Lastly, those within the health sector expressed the need to provide initiatives that are targeted towards those collectives with the most needs in the community but at the same time are accessible to all in the community.