Primary and Community Mental Health Care Intervention for Suicide Prevention in the Filipino Community of Raval Nord in Barcelona

Background: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic stressed the entire health system and, in particular, primary health care (PHC). Based on a community and social participation approach some PHC initiatives have been implemented in Catalonia that have been essential to guarantee accessible and continuous health care to the population. This presentation examines one of these experiences, which took place in a multicultural neighborhood of Barcelona, known as "el Raval". Focusing on the Filipino community, during the first months of the confinement, nursing professionals of the PHC unit led a suicide prevention initiative in response to the worrying increase in the number of cases registered in this community in a short period of time. Method: Among the community interventions to prevent suicide, the training of suicide prevention gatekeepers was chosen, which has been considered an optimal intervention by the WHO and various studies. Individuals from the Filipino community were selected and they were trained in basic skills to recognize possible warning signs of suicide risk and to accompany these individuals in distress to PHC services. Results: The press embraced the project and played an important role in the multidimensional approach to the complexity of suicide, reporting without sensationalism the epidemiological reality and the preventive community activities that were carried out. Other community organizations in Raval contacted the neighborhood nurses to collaborate in the project, and as a result, a new working group was created consisting of these organizations, the neighborhood nurses, and ten Filipino community associations in the neighborhood. Conclusions: This new collaborative space, made up of PHC professionals, key people from the Filipino community and community organizations reinforced the intervention and added new elements to improve the emotional well-being of the Filipino community beyond suicide prevention.