Queen Letizia of Spain today received the 2021’s first Palace audience at the Royal Palace of Zarzuela in Madrid. In the morning, Letizia met with the representatives of the Spanish Mental Health Confederation and learnt how the pandemic is affecting the mental health of the population.
The president of the confederation has explained that both the pandemic and the restrictive measures and the socioeconomic consequences that accompany it, “are beginning to take their toll on the mental health of the population.” The representatives explain how “Suicidal thoughts have increased between 8% and 10%, especially in young people,” given the worsening mental health. “WHO already recommends allocating resources to the care of mental health within the framework of their response and recovery plans”.
This reception of the Spanish Mental Health Confederation at the Zarzuela Palace is the part of several meetings that Queen Letizia has had with the Confederation over the last four years. The most recent took place last September 2020, when Queen Letizia visited the headquarters of the Confederation to inquire about the situation of the associative movement entities during the pandemic. During the lockdown, Queen Letizia has maintained contact with the Confederation through video calls. In 2016, the Queen visited the headquarters of the Confederation for the first time, where she had the opportunity to get closer to the work of the technical and managerial team of the organization, in different projects.
The Spanish Mental Health Confederation is a non-profit, social interest and public utility entity that emerged in 1983. It integrates 18 permanent member entities, which bring together more than 300 entities and has more than 47,000 members throughout the national territory. For anyone who needs it, the Spanish Mental Health Confederation offers a free information and advice service on mental health through the email informacion@consaludmental.org the website www.consaludmental.org and the telephone numbers 91 507 92 48 and 672 370 187.
Later in the day, Queen Letizia received a representation of the European Association against Leukodystrophies ELA-Spain, which for twenty years has been working for the children affected by different types of leukodystrophy. In 2005, the Spanish Association became a sister to the European Association and was renamed ELA-Spain (European Leukodystrophy Association – Spain)
The association’s representatives explained to the Queen their objective of focusing on funding programs dedicated to improving the health and well-being of patients. This goal can be achieved through studies aimed at understanding disease mechanisms, developing natural history studies that include outcome measures and biomarkers, and conducting clinical trials with new drugs and advanced therapies.
The advanced knowledge about this group of diseases presents a reality different from the usual one. It has been proven that both the prevalence of the disease and the ages of development of the disease or the affected groups are very different from what has believed 20 years ago when work on leukodystrophies began. It is now known that there are many more types of leukodystrophy than were known 20 years ago and that as a whole, leukodystrophies, although still considered low-prevalence diseases, affect a high number of people (1 / 7,500 births).
For the day, Queen Letizia chose a comfortable and minimal look. She was wearing Carolina Herrera Double-breasted glen plaid blazer. Thanks to Nuria on Twitter for the id.
The originally £750.00 grey blazer features flap pockets and lined buttons. Back vent and full lining. Currently, it’s on sale for £375.00.
Letizia paired the blazer with a black top and black trouser.
Another new element of the look was a pair of black loafers. Letizia de Princesa a Reina on Instagram suggested that Letizia is wearing Uterque Leather Loafers with Chain. The loafers are made from cowhide leather with a Nappa finish.
And her Karen Hallam ring was not missing.
In other news, Royal Palace of Zarzuela announced that Princess of Asturias, Leonor, will continue her secondary education at United World Colleges (UWC) educational institution at the UWC Atlantic College in Wales. Princess will attend the college for two sessions 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 for International Baccalaureate. She will be living at the college accommodation during the tenure of the study.
