Towards a national Plan for the prevention of suicide:

There is a position among associations of professionals in the world of Mental Health that call for the creation of a National Plan in Spain for the prevention of suicide. In 2017 the Unión del Pueblo Navarro (UPN) party presented a Proposal NO of Law by which the National Commission of Health and Social Services of the Congress of Deputies urged the Government of Spain to elaborate a National Plan for Suicide Prevention that pays special attention to the adolescent and young population. After several amendments, the proposal was rejected in 2022 by the Senate with 137 votes against, 112 in favor and 7 abstentions, despite the fact that the Spanish Government has stated on several occasions that Mental Health is one of its top priorities, especially among young people and since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The parties that are against it argue that suicide prevention is included in one of the sections of the National Mental Health Plan and that health is the responsibility of the Autonomous Communities (8 of them have their own plan). Those in favor claim that the impact of suicide on the Spanish population needs its own National Action Plan because it is a public health problem that should be addressed by the different Ministries and not only by the health sector. Furthermore, it is emphasized that not all the Autonomous Communities have the same resources to create their own plans or to carry them out and that Spain is failing to comply with the commitment made to the WHO in 2013 to create a national plan.

NEW SPORT LAW: LAW 39/2022, OF DECEMBER 30, 2022, ON SPORT

Among the actions envisaged in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan was the creation of a sports law. This has been the main reform in the field of sports in Spain, which, as explained in previous chapters, has led to the restructuring in all areas related to the Spanish sports system through the 2030 Support Plan for Grassroots Sports (ADB 2030).

On December 31, 2022 in Spain, the Sports Law was modified and assumed as valid the definition of sports practice of the European Sports Charter. Thus, it extended its scope to the entire population in general, and not only to Federated Sport as was previously the case:

"Sports practice (...) is understood as any type of physical activity which, through individual or collective participation, organized or not, professional or non-professional, is carried out with objectives related to the improvement of physical, psychological or emotional condition, with the achievement of results in competitions or sports activities, with the acquisition of healthy sports habits or with the active occupation of leisure time, carried out in public or private facilities, or in the natural environment" (art.2.1 paragraph 2).

 Thus, any person who engages in physical activity individually or in a group is considered a sportsperson (art.19.1). It also recognizes sport as an essential right and activity that should be encouraged at all stages of life, both within and outside the educational system, and which should be accessible to everyone, without exclusion. Therefore, the new trends in sport in Spain is to generate inclusive strategies and plans that promote accessibility to sport regardless of age, gender or disability.