More than 82,000 people in Alicante received mental health care last year
The province accounted for over a third of the 231,803 patients treated across the Valencian Community in 2025
More than 82,400 people living in the province of Alicante received specialist mental health care through the Valencian health service during 2025.The figure, 82,456, represents more than a third of the 231,803 patients treated across the Valencian Community. The data was released by the regional Health Department ahead of World Mental Health Day, marked on October 10.
Across the community, women made up the larger share of patients, with 131,560 treated compared with 100,243 men. Valencia province recorded the highest number of patients, at 117,375, followed by Alicante and then Castellón with 31,659. A further 313 people lived outside the Valencian Community.
One of the most significant changes is the growing number of children and teenagers needing specialist support. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Units cared for 50,581 minors during 2025, around 21% of all patients treated.
“Approximately one in five people treated are minors, so we are adapting care responses to the real needs of children and adolescents,” said Bartolomé Pérez Gálvez, the Valencian Community’s Director General of Mental Health and Addictions.
He said meeting that demand requires more than simply adding appointments or staff. “The response cannot be limited to simply increasing the number of appointments and professionals,” he said. Instead, he called for a structure that includes outpatient care, day hospitals and specialist inpatient units.
Early support in schools is also becoming a key part of the response. The Valencian Community has 23 Early Detection Units, which work alongside schools and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Units.
Between 2025 and the first half of 2026, these units supported 4,615 schoolchildren and carried out more than 20,000 interventions. The aim is to identify pupils who need a specialist assessment, then monitor their cases and ensure the right professionals are involved.
The Health Department is also placing greater emphasis on the experiences of people who have lived through mental health problems. This year’s World Health Organization motto is “Listen to people with lived experience: real voices, real change.”
“Person-centred care also requires incorporating the knowledge of those who have gone through a mental health problem and know firsthand what difficulties they encounter, what support is useful and what elements can promote their recovery,” Pérez Gálvez said.
He stressed that peer support does not replace professional care. “Lived experience provides a different and complementary understanding to clinical knowledge,” he said.
The department’s approach now combines support for younger patients, earlier detection in schools and the involvement of people with lived experience in recovery.
Image: Gustavo Fring/Pexels
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