The Board enables a free psychological care phone line after the earthquakes in Granada: this is the number

The Statute of Autonomy for Andalusia does not explicitly define a “Minister of Presidency, Health, and Emergencies,” nor does it break down their functions by specific departments. What it does is establish, on one hand, the material competencies of the Autonomous Community in health and civil protection/emergencies and, on the other, the general framework for the organization of the Andalusian Government (President, Council of Government, and ministers) to which any specific ministry is anchored. From this framework, the competencies of the holder of a ministry that groups Presidency, Health, and Emergencies are derived by internal distribution.

1. Organic framework: President, Council of Government, and ministers

The Statute establishes that the Junta de Andalucía is politically organized into Parliament, Presidency of the Junta, and Council of Government. The organization and structure of these self-government institutions is the exclusive competence of the Autonomous Community, which includes the configuration of ministries and the grouping of matters in the same portfolio.

Regarding the President of the Junta, the Statute provides that:

• “He directs and coordinates the activity of the Council of Government, coordinates the Administration of the Autonomous Community, appoints and removes the Ministers, and holds the supreme representation of the Autonomous Community and the ordinary representation of the State in Andalusia.”
• He may temporarily delegate his own executive functions to Vice Presidents or Ministers.

About the Council of Government, the Statute states that:

• It is composed of the President, the Vice Presidents if any, and the Ministers.
• It is the collegiate body that exercises the political direction of the Autonomous Community, directs the Administration, and develops the executive and administrative functions of the Junta.
• Within the scope of the Community's competencies, the exercise of regulatory power corresponds to the Council of Government and each of its members.

From this, it follows that any minister — including the Minister of Presidency, Health, and Emergencies — is a member of the Council of Government, with their own political responsibility for their management and regulatory and executive power in the material scope assigned by the President.

2. Material competencies in health and public health

The Statute attributes to Andalusia a broad block of competencies in health and public health. Among other aspects, it establishes that:

• The Community has exclusive competence over the organization, internal functioning, evaluation, inspection, and control of health centers, services, and establishments, as well as over pharmaceutical regulation within the constitutional framework.
• It holds shared competence in internal health, including the regulation, planning, determination, regulation, and execution of public health and social health services and benefits for the entire population.
• It also corresponds to the Community the regulation and execution of measures to preserve, protect, and promote public health in all areas: occupational health, animal health with effects on human health, food and environmental health, epidemiological surveillance, as well as the regime of personnel of the public health system and health research.

These competencies are not attributed to a specific body but to the Autonomous Community. In practice, the Minister of Presidency, Health, and Emergencies assumes, by internal distribution of the Government, the political and administrative direction of these health matters, exercising regulatory and management power in their scope, always under the general direction of the President and within the lines set by the Council of Government.

3. Competencies in civil protection and emergencies

The Statute attributes to Andalusia exclusive competence in civil protection, which “includes, in any case, the regulation, planning, and execution of measures related to emergencies and civil security, as well as the direction and coordination of civil protection services, which include fire prevention and extinction services,” respecting the State's competencies in public security. Additionally, it recognizes execution competencies in maritime rescue on the Andalusian coast and participation in nuclear safety.

Again, the statutory text sets the block of competencies of the Community, not of each ministry. The possible attribution of these functions to the Minister of Presidency, Health, and Emergencies is a decision of the Andalusian Government's organization, supported by the exclusive competence over the structure of its self-government institutions.

4. Presidency and Government organization

Alongside the above, the Statute establishes that the organization and structure of the self-government institutions and public administrative bodies of Andalusia is an exclusive autonomous competence. On that basis, a “Presidency” ministry usually concentrates, by political and normative decision of the Government itself, interdepartmental coordination functions, relations with Parliament and other administrations, and immediate support to the President; but these functions derive from norms and organizational decrees of the Executive, not directly from the Statute.

5. Summary

In summary, according to the Statute of Autonomy (Organic Law 2/2007, available at BOE), the “competencies” of the Minister of Presidency, Health, and Emergencies are constructed by combining:

• The general organic framework: every minister is part of the Council of Government, exercises regulatory power and executive functions in their scope, and is politically accountable before Parliament.
• The material competencies of the Community in health and public health, and in civil protection and emergencies, which the Government assigns to that specific ministry through its own internal organization.

Therefore, the Statute enables and frames these competencies but does not detail the “catalog” of functions of the minister, which is specified in the organizational norms of the Andalusian Government issued under that same Statute.

In Spain, there is no specific legal “button” solely to activate psychological emergency devices: they are framed within the National Civil Protection System and the autonomous health organization. The requirements for an autonomous community to activate them derive mainly from Law 17/2015, of July 9, on the National Civil Protection System, the Basic Civil Protection Standard approved by Royal Decree 524/2023, and the territorial and special civil protection and health plans of the community itself.

1. Existence and activation of civil protection plans

Law 17/2015 and the Basic Civil Protection Standard require each autonomous community to have:

• An autonomous territorial civil protection plan, which regulates the response to emergencies affecting its geographic scope.
• Special plans (floods, seismic, forest fires, chemical risk, etc.) when there are relevant specific risks in its territory.
• Self-protection plans in centers and risk facilities that are functionally integrated into the public system.

Law 17/2015 defines “immediate response to civil protection emergencies” as the action of intervention and assistance services after the emergency, expressly including urgent health, psychological, and social care. Therefore, to activate psychological emergency resources, the community must:

• Have those devices foreseen in its territorial plan or special plans (for example, as a psychosocial group or subgroup).
• Declare and activate the emergency according to the phases and levels established by the plan itself (pre-emergency, emergency at different degrees, etc.), usually through the autonomous authority competent in civil protection.

2. Integration into the operational structure of the emergency

The State General Civil Protection Emergency Plan (PLEGEM), approved by resolution of December 16, 2020 (BOE), details the operational structure that is then replicated or adapted in autonomous plans. In that structure:

• A “Psychosocial Intervention Group” is expressly foreseen as one of the possible specialized action groups under integrated operational command.
• Citizen Attention Centers are defined with functions of compiling lists of affected persons, shelter and distribution of goods, and providing psychosocial support.

The State Civil Protection Plan against Flood Risk (BOE) also foresees Citizen Attention Centers and plans for supply, shelter, and social assistance that include psychological support.

Consequently, the autonomous community must:

• Have a command and coordination structure (autonomous emergency coordination center, advanced command posts, etc.) that contemplates where psychosocial intervention teams fit.
• Ensure the principle of unity of command and functional specialty: psychological teams act under the operational command of civil protection, maintaining their professional organization but integrated into the plan.

3. Human and organizational resources

Psychological emergency care devices rely on:

• Public intervention and assistance services defined in Law 17/2015: technical civil protection and emergency services, emergency health services, Security Forces and Corps, etc., within which urgent psychological and social care is included.
• The autonomous health organization (mental health services, health emergencies, community devices) that must foresee in its emergency plans the mobilization of psychologists and other professionals in disasters.
• Collaborating entities and volunteers, such as the Spanish Red Cross, whose participation in PLEGEM expressly includes “psychosocial intervention,” under agreements and contracts with administrations.

To formally activate these devices, the community must:

• Have identified and trained teams (own or contracted) foreseen in the plan's catalog of means and resources.
• Activate them through operational orders issued by the emergency management, just as firefighters or health teams are deployed.
• Guarantee special attention to vulnerable groups (minors, elderly people, persons with disabilities, relatives of victims), something that civil protection regulations emphasize transversally.

4. Coordination with the State and other communities

When the disaster exceeds the autonomous capacity and a national interest emergency is declared, the State may assume direction through the National Emergency Monitoring and Coordination Center, integrating the autonomous centers. The community then maintains its psychological devices but:

• Activates and coordinates them according to the instructions of the State emergency management.
• May receive reinforcement from State resources (for example, through agreements with specialized entities or support from other communities).

In short, the autonomous community must comply with the general planning and organization requirements of the National Civil Protection System, integrate urgent psychological care into its territorial and health plans, and have teams and operational protocols to be able to activate, with legal basis, psychological emergency devices after natural disasters.

Based on the sources consulted, it can be stated that several autonomous communities have developed psychological care or psychosocial support devices linked to emergencies that include, or could include, earthquakes: notably Andalusia, the Valencian Community, the Balearic Islands, and the Community of Madrid. In other cases (Murcia, Navarra, Canary Islands) no clear references to specific devices after recent earthquakes appear in the reviewed news, although there is mention of the impact of the Lorca earthquake and the La Palma eruption in state debates on mental health in disasters.

Andalusia

Andalusia is the territory where the most recent information appears linked to earthquake management:

• After the magnitude 5 earthquake in August 2026 in the metropolitan area of Granada, the Junta activated the emergency phase, operational situation 1, of the Earthquake Risk Emergency Plan, coordinating resources and building inspections, according to various reports from Demócrata.
• The Andalusian Emergency Agency (EMA 1-1-2) reminds in its notes that the 112 phone is available 24 hours for any emergency and accompanies that communication with recommendations for the population in case of earthquakes, as well as educational materials to reduce anxiety associated with tremors (Junta note).
• Although the reviewed news do not describe psychological teams deployed specifically after an earthquake, they do document that in other recent emergencies (for example, the Adamuz train accident) the Junta activates the Psychological Intervention Group in Emergencies and Disasters (GIPEC), in coordination with the Red Cross, the Institute of Legal Medicine, and mental health resources of the public network, to offer in-person and group support to affected persons and intervening personnel.
  This indicates that Andalusia already has a stable model of psychological intervention in emergencies, potentially usable also after earthquakes.
• In municipalities like Armilla, after the recent seismic sequence, town halls have even opened public spaces and sports facilities for anxious neighbors, which functions de facto as collective psychosocial containment, as reported by Demócrata.

Valencian Community

Although the located information refers to the 2024 DANA and not to earthquakes, the Valencian Community has deployed a very structured mental health device in disasters that serves as a reference:

• The Ministry of Health activated a post-disaster mental health strategic plan, with Trauma Care Units and other devices deployed in the most affected areas, with multidisciplinary teams of psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, mental health nursing, and social work (Gaceta Médica, GVA note).
• Mobile psychological assistance centers, help phone lines, and specific trauma units have been reinforced to prevent post-traumatic stress and attend to more than a thousand people, many with symptoms of anxiety, insomnia, or re-experiencing the event.
• The Ministry of Health, in coordination with the Generalitat, has created Mental Health Emergency Units (USME) that integrate into the overall post-DANA response and are structured at several levels: psychological first aid, community and family support, personalized support, and specialized care (Ministry of Health note).

Although the news do not explicitly mention activation after earthquakes, this USME scheme, trauma units, and support lines is a transferable model to seismic emergencies in that community.

Balearic Islands

In the Balearics, the information is more generic but relevant:

• The Balearic Government maintains a psychological care agreement in emergency or urgent situations, with nearly 300 interventions in one year, according to an official note from the Government (CAIB).
• The device foresees in-person interventions at the scene or by phone, aimed at reducing stress and distress after emergencies of different types (accidents, natural disasters, etc.).

Although no specific earthquake is cited, this system is designed precisely for sudden emergencies with high emotional impact, such as earthquakes could be.

Community of Madrid

Madrid does not appear in the analyzed news with a service activated specifically after an earthquake, but it does with a clear reinforcement of psychosocial devices in emergencies:

• The Community of Madrid has incorporated psychological care into the mobile units of the Social Emergency Service, operational 24/7, to attend accident sites, disasters, or situations of neglect, with a team of psychologists deployed on site (ConSalud).
• In another context (forest fires), the regional Government has approved a specific health and psychosocial device with mobile units in affected municipalities and a channel to request psychological support through the Virtual Health Card, showing that the community structures mental health services adapted to disasters, potentially usable also in earthquakes (Community of Madrid).

Other territories and limitations

The reviewed documentation:

• Recalls the Lorca earthquake (Murcia, 2011) and the La Palma eruption (Canary Islands, 2021) as milestones that have driven state campaigns on mental health in disasters, but without detailing specific autonomous services activated after those events.
• Does not provide specific references to Navarra or to Canarian autonomous services deployed after recent earthquakes, beyond seismic monitoring in Tenerife and reflection on transparency and emergency drills.

It is reasonable to assume that most seismic risk communities have psychological support resources integrated into their civil protection plans, but with the available information, only the existence of structured devices in Andalusia, Valencian Community, Balearic Islands, and Community of Madrid can be documented with some detail, beyond general state actions (USME, agreements with the Council of Psychologists and specialized NGOs in emergencies).