There are interviews in which, rather than asking, you are going to learn. And this has been the case. Because when you sit at the same table to talk about addictions with Francisco Fernández (from Fòrum Terapèutic), Ferran Samaniego (from Center Montau) and Albert Vallès (from the Can Calau clinic) and they explain their new project, the passion, the desire and the Knowledge is dumped on the table and you can’t do anything but listen attentively and nod.
And what is this new project? Well, it is Fórum Salud Mental, the largest mental health group specialized in addictions in Spain that comes from the union of the three centers, all of them with a long history in the fight against addictions, both at the individual level of their professionals and at the institutional level.
Thus, after the merger, Fórum Salud Mental now has 24 clinics (3 of them inpatient and 21 outpatient) spread throughout the national territory. Currently, the group is treating 1,600 patients a year, but the idea is to be able to serve 2,500. “What we want is to reach as many people as possible and, in this way, be able to help them,” says Albert Vallès. “Demand in recent years has increased a lot and we need to increase resources.”
Forum Terapèutic and Center Montau have been together for a few years, since in 2017 they formed Forum Montau, the health group specialized in prevention, advice, treatment and promotion of mental health that, until today, has been a leader in addressing mental health disorders. behavior, substance use disorders, and other mental health challenges. Now they are joined by the Can Calau clinic, the Argentona center with more than 20 years of experience in addiction treatment. “Together we will be able to offer more services, not only around addictions, but also other services that society demands, such as help with eating disorders, dual pathologies, autism spectrum…” explains Ferran Samaniego.
The three centers that make up Forum Salud Mental do so under the umbrella of the therapy proposed by the Integrative Model of the Forum Group. A model that has been enriched by the experience of hundreds of people, psychologists and therapists, patients and families over the years. “The help of so many people has allowed us a continuous and structured investigation, which currently continues to serve as support for the addict. It is, therefore, its own, pioneering and innovative method, which complements the most successful methods of Behavioral-Cognitive Therapy with the humanistic and systemic currents, which today continue to be at the forefront of the best treatments worldwide and which It has a success rate that is close to 84%,” details Francisco Fernández.
Thanks to this model, Fórum Salud Mental can offer full coverage for addiction problems, behavioral disorders and various pathologies related to mental health. “The ultimate goal of any of our treatments, logically, is to help both the patient and the family overcome the disease and begin a new way of living,” continues Samaniego. “Even if we are faced with a chronic condition, we work to find solutions that allow us to learn to live with the disease in the best possible way. We adapt to the needs of each patient and each family, offering a wide range of schedules and various types of care, both group and personalized.”
And your treatment is also based on this: personalization to each patient. For this reason, it is also essential to offer different types of therapies: individual, group, day centers, outpatient, admission, reintegration floors… “Each one fulfills its function at a specific moment in recovery. Perhaps, at first, the patient is not ready for an admission, or perhaps it is not necessary. Addiction is a single disease, but there are as many as there are people, and we have to follow their rhythm,” says Vallès. “Patients have spent many years constructing a lie to be able to live with their addiction; disassembling it is very complicated.”
“You can have a functional life, with work, with family, with friends, with leisure… And it may seem like everything is going well, but it is not. And it is the family, the environment, that notices that not everything is as perfect as the addict thinks. But there are also those who don’t want to see it, and believe their own lies, because there is still a lot of stigmatization of addictions: families ask themselves, ‘what have I done wrong?’ And that’s not the case, addiction is a disease like any other,” say the three founders.
For this reason they assure that the environment is “50% of the recovery.” Thus, if we detect a case of addiction or have doubts, the first thing we should do is go to an addiction center so that they can evaluate the case and give us advice. “The family member can come, free of charge, with or without the addict. And you can also call us or send a message to our telephone number (900 802 408) where we provide assistance 24 hours a day, every day of the week.”
