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# Mental Health Is Everyone's Business. Is Segovia Doing Enough?
- URL: https://www.thesegovian.com/mental-health-is-everyones-business-is-segovia-doing-enough/
- Published: 2026-10-14T21:12:33.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-14T21:12:33.000Z
- Description: Awareness has moved into public life. Affordable, timely psychological care must follow — including in Segovia.
- Author: The Segovian Editorial Team
- Tags: Opinion, #pending-marie-approval

**Awareness has moved into public life. Affordable, timely psychological care must follow — including for people whose circumstances leave them least able to pay.**

*By Marie Boeufgras*

A royal speech can make a subject harder to ignore. It cannot give someone an appointment. That distinction matters after Queen Letizia’s appearance at the World Mental Health Day event in Madrid on 9 October. Her intervention put mental wellbeing, particularly that of children and adolescents, in the public conversation. The question for Segovia is what happens when that conversation reaches a consulting room.

The [Royal Household’s account](https://www.casareal.es/ES/Actividades/Paginas/actividades%5Factividades%5Fdetalle.aspx?data=17097) describes an event organised by Confederación Salud Mental España, with institutional collaboration, under the theme “Haz match con tu salud mental”. It records advocacy and discussion, not a new healthcare entitlement, funding settlement or programme launched by the Queen. Her role was to lend attention and support. Decisions about services, staffing and public expenditure belong elsewhere.

That does not make the occasion unimportant. Speaking openly can help people recognise distress and seek support. But awareness is only a beginning. If we encourage someone to ask for help, we should also ask whether appropriate help is within reach.

## The distance between asking and receiving

In informal conversations with healthcare professionals in Segovia, I have heard about difficulties meeting demand for psychological services. These conversations have shaped my concern. They are personal observations, not independently verified interviews, a survey of the profession or a measurement of waiting times.

It would be wrong to turn them into a claim that nobody can obtain public psychological care here. Segovia’s hospital complex explicitly lists [clinical psychology among its mental health services](https://www.saludcastillayleon.es/CASegovia/es/prestaciones/psiquiatria). It would be equally wrong to assume that the existence of a service tells us how quickly every patient can use it, or whether everyone receives the continuity of care they need. A current, comparable local waiting-time figure has not been established for this article.

For a resident seeking support, the practical questions are straightforward. Where should I start? Who will assess what I need? How long will I wait? What happens between appointments? For someone already finding everyday life difficult, navigating an unfamiliar system can itself become another task to manage.

These are questions about how care works, rather than accusations against the people delivering it. Recognising pressure on professionals should strengthen the argument for adequate resources. It should not become an explanation we learn to accept indefinitely.

## A plan is a commitment to be tested

There are public commitments against which progress can be judged. Spain’s [Mental Health Action Plan for 2025–2027](https://www.sanidad.gob.es/areas/calidadAsistencial/estrategias/saludMental/docs/Plan%5Faccion%5Fsalud%5Fmental%5F2025%5F27.pdf) identifies workforce development, community care and unequal access among its priorities. It specifies €39 million for 2025\. That is a national allocation for a stated year, not new funding announced at the Queen’s October appearance, and not a sum earmarked entirely for Segovia.

At regional level, the [Castilla y León mental healthcare strategy for 2024–2030](https://www.saludcastillayleon.es/institucion/es/planes-estrategias/estrategia-asistencia-salud-mental-castilla-leon-2024-2030) provides a longer framework for organising services. Such documents matter because they make priorities visible. Their value ultimately depends on what changes for the person trying to get care.

For Segovia and its province, a useful public account of progress would explain access, staffing and continuity in terms residents can understand. Provincial geography belongs in that discussion too: an available appointment and an appointment someone can realistically reach are not necessarily the same thing. Transport, work and caring responsibilities can all affect that distinction.

## When the alternative has a price

Private therapy can offer another route. The financial difficulty is that psychological care may require a series of appointments, rather than one payment that can be absorbed and forgotten. Even without attaching a single “typical” price to a varied market, the problem is clear: a recurring expense competes with rent, food, heating and other necessities.

For a household with little room in its budget, deciding whether to begin can mean deciding what else to go without. Continuing may be harder still. We should resist interpreting a missed or postponed appointment as a lack of commitment when money may be part of the explanation.

Nor is this only a question of the person receiving treatment. Families can carry worry, practical responsibilities and financial pressure together. Accessible professional care is therefore a community concern, even when the consultation itself is private.

A fair system should not make the ability to pay the decisive factor in how promptly someone can receive appropriate support. That is the standard worth defending, while recognising that different needs require different kinds of professional response.

## A city can make room for wellbeing

Healthcare is central, but our surroundings and relationships also deserve attention. Segovia’s walkable public spaces, parks and cultural life offer opportunities to spend time outside, move, meet other people and take part in something shared. A workshop or a regular group activity can give a week structure. A familiar walking route can make leaving home feel more manageable.

These possibilities should be discussed without turning them into prescriptions. A walk beside the Eresma is not a treatment plan. Exercise, friendship and cultural participation may support wellbeing; they cannot replace professional assessment or treatment when it is needed. Telling someone to go outside can be dismissive if what they have asked for is help.

Access matters here as well. An activity is not truly welcoming merely because it exists. Cost, mobility, language, timing and the confidence required to enter a room of strangers can affect participation. Free public space and affordable community activities are worth protecting precisely because they can widen the circle of people able to join in.

## What would “enough” look like?

Segovia does not need a choice between better healthcare and a richer community life. It needs both. Public discussion should make it easier to seek help, services should make that help accessible, and everyday life should offer opportunities for connection without demanding that people explain or justify their distress.

The test of growing awareness is what follows it. Are routes into care understandable? Is support affordable and timely? Can people continue receiving it when their circumstances are difficult? Until those questions can be answered with confidence, mental health remains everyone’s business — and a responsibility that cannot end with a speech.