Goya España collaborates with El Gancho Foundation in the installation of the first “Blue Space” in Andalusia
Coinciding with the Day of the Hospitalized Child and the European Mental Health Week, El Gancho Children’s Foundation presented “El Espacio Azul” in Seville on May 13th. “El Espacio Azul”. This space, located in the Virgen del Rocío University Hospital, is equipped with a 360-degree projection system for immersive reality therapies that will help to improve the emotional wellbeing of children and young people in Andalusia.
In the implementation of this first “Blue Space”, El Gancho has had the collaboration of Goya Spain, which has exclusively sponsored its installation, within the #GoyaCares program promoted by Goya Foods.
The inaugural ceremony of the first “Espacio Azul” was attended by the general manager of Goya España, Antonio Carrasco, together with the assistant manager of the Virgen del Rocío Hospital, Jesús Rodríguez, the director of the Andalusian Mental Health Plan, Benedicto Crespo, and the coordinator of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Unit of the Virgen del Rocío Hospital, Miguel Ruiz.
As highlighted by Antonio Carrasco, Goya Spain was convinced of its active implication in the project after the first meeting with the president of the Foundation, Marta Baturone: “The challenge of the “Blue Space” has become a challenge for the family that makes up Goya Spain, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary of establishment. With this collaboration we will be able to help “other families” in Andalusia and the professionals who accompany them, so that they can count on this new space where they can learn to manage crisis and/or stress situations”.
Friendly space
In Andalusia, more than 350,000 children and adolescents (1 in 7 between the ages of 10 and 19) suffer from a mental health disorder, 47% more since 2020. Faced with this reality, El Gancho Infantil Foundation is committed to reversing this situation by helping to bring to Andalusia the only projector in the world that projects in 360 degrees to perform therapies with immersive reality, the MK2. This tool, with a platform of more than 200 videos, will help to improve the emotional well-being of children and their cognitive stimulation.
The “Blue Space” is a safe and friendly space, from 25 to 80 m2, for children with mental health disorders and other pathologies such as oncology, neurosurgery or in cases of patients with long and complex surgeries to learn how to manage situations of anxiety, crisis and stress. In addition, it will also be available for healthcare professionals who experience moments of increased stress in their working lives. In short, as the mental health coordinator of the Hospital Virgen del Rocío emphasized in his presentation, “it is a friendly innovation that can have an impact on mental health or emotions, not only for minors, this is transversal to the whole hospital”.
With the support of the General Department of Mental Health of the Regional Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs and the Andalusian Health Service, eight Child and Adolescent Mental Health Units in Andalusia will have this space in their hospitals to implement these therapies with immersive reality, which will help to facilitate the daily work of the professionals. Thus, the Virgen del Rocío Children’s Hospital in Seville will carry out a first acceptability study during these first six months, which will confirm the positive results for its implementation in the rest of the community.
CSR and Goya
With the priority objective of promoting the general welfare of the community, Goya Spain develops different collaborative actions within the #GoyaCares and #GoyaGives programs. Thus, it collaborates with different organizations such as the Seville Food Bank and associations in Alcalá de Guadaíra such as the Paz y Bien Association, Caritas or the San Juan de Dios Center.
