More than 16 years promoting emotional well-being at URJC

Editorial/Ginés Miñano

The Healthy University program has been promoting healthy lifestyles at URJC for over 16 years, with a sustained commitment to emotional well-being as the central focus of its activities. Year after year, the program develops initiatives aimed at emotional management, self-care, social and communication skills, and the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

In addition to its general training programs, the service addresses specific needs through classroom interventions, individualized counseling, and collaborations with other university departments to respond to concrete requirements. The team carries out ongoing work to strengthen socio-emotional skills, which has been recognized on several occasions as an example of best practices, most recently by the Mexican Network of Health-Promoting Universities.

“Currently, we are seeing very worrying figures on mental health and we believe that it is especially necessary to work on tools to get to know and take care of ourselves, and that institutions implement policies and measures that take care of health,” says Silvia Cruz.

The URJC also stands out for its pioneering role within the Health Promoting Universities movement, with active participation in networking at both the national and Ibero-American levels. “From the Emotional Wellbeing working group, several psychologists are working to improve the approach to mental health in universities, an issue that poses a challenge for university institutions,” explains Ainhoa ​​Romero. In this context, the university was recently recognized for its involvement in the III Congress of Health Promoting Universities.

The university community can participate in the program's monthly activities, which are credit-bearing, and consult the resources available in the web pageEach academic year, around 3.500 people participate in the Healthy University initiatives. Looking ahead to 2026, the program will incorporate new proposals, such as the project 'Improving Psychological Well-being through Life Skills' and the creation of listening groups to identify the needs and concerns of the university community.