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Santander has experienced a significant increase in demand for mental health services and addiction treatment among children and adolescents. This trend reflects a public health crisis in which both outpatient and inpatient care have expanded considerably. The growth not only indicates a higher prevalence of these issues but also an institutional response that has broadened its coverage and improved access to early diagnoses through community outreach programs. The information presented in the article comes from official reports issued by a health institution, using administrative data on consultations, hospitalizations, and types of care provided. However, the article does not make the underlying dataset, its counting methodologies, or the structured databases that would enable independent verification or secondary analysis publicly available. The cited figures serve solely as a journalistic narrative to illustrate the severity of the situation, without providing access to raw data for other researchers or citizens. This case is relevant to the open data movement because it highlights the common gap between the generation of data by public health entities and its actual availability. Although this is public health information with high social impact, the lack of access to the underlying datasets limits transparency and the ability of civil society to monitor trends, propose evidence-based policies, or develop technological solutions. True, enforceable transparency would go beyond publishing aggregated figures in news reports, including the release of the data itself under open licenses.

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Published on 2024-02-27

Open Data

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