Andalusia appoints Mercedes Rivera Cueto as director of the childhood obesity program

The Regional Ministry of Presidency, Health and Emergencies of the Junta de Andalucía has appointed María de las Mercedes Rivera Cueto as director of the Care Program for chronic adipose tissue disease in children and adolescents within the Health Services. The appointment is formalized through a resolution from the General Secretariat of Public Health and Health Promotion dated October 22, 2026, and published in the Official Gazette of the Junta de Andalucía (BOJA) no. 209, of October 28, 2026. The appointment paves the way for a new care model in children’s public health affecting families, pediatrics, and health facilities throughout the community.

The resolution, signed in Seville by the general secretary David Moreno Pérez, is based on the Ministry’s competence to define health policies, allocate resources, and guarantee the right to health, in accordance with Law 2/1998, of June 15, on the Health of Andalusia. The text also invokes Article 33 of the same regulation, which refers to the Andalusian Health Plan for the development of specific health plans by health areas, and Law 9/2007, of October 22, on the Administration of the Junta de Andalucía in its Article 28. The organic authorization comes from Article 10.1.i) of Decree 189/2026, of July 30, which attributes to the General Secretariat of Public Health and Health Promotion the development and execution of comprehensive and sectoral strategies and plans regarding public health.

The health support is specified in Law 16/2011, of December 23, on Public Health of Andalusia, whose Article 12.b) obliges the competent administrations to develop educational strategies on food, nutrition, and healthy habits, particularly aimed at boys and girls. Article 70.2 of the same law establishes that prevention actions should be directed at all stages of life and prevent childhood obesity and other eating disorders.

A qualitative leap against childhood obesity

The Program is born within the Strategic Health Plan for Childhood and Adolescence 2023-2027, whose mission is to improve and promote the health and well-being of Andalusian children and adolescents through prevention, promotion, care, protection, and health recovery actions, with a multidisciplinary, intersectoral, rights-based, and equity approach. Within this framework, the health Administration identified the need to reinforce the clinical care of chronic adipose tissue disease in minors with a comprehensive perspective.

The official text describes the Program as an assistance and multidimensional response that represents a qualitative leap in the conceptualization of childhood obesity by prioritizing prevention and early identification. The resolution lists the lines that articulate this care:

• Attention to warning signs.
• Diagnostic confirmation.
• Basic counseling.
• Advanced intervention.
• Transition needs to adult life.

Prevention of stigmas and obesogenic environments

In addition to the clinical aspect, the Program incorporates tools for the prevention of stigmas and for the awareness and social and family commitment to health care. It also includes the identification of obesogenic environments as a factor for intervention.

According to the resolution, implementation and monitoring must include the promotion of lines of prevention, promotion, awareness, and training, and for this purpose, they require the leadership of a person of recognized professional prestige and management capacity to energize the lines of action. This is the explicit basis for the appointment of Rivera Cueto to lead the Program’s direction.

Appointment without specific remuneration

The resolution specifies the conditions of the designation in three points:

• First. To appoint Ms. María de las Mercedes Rivera Cueto as Director of the Care Program for chronic adipose tissue disease in children and adolescents in the Health Services.
• Second. The designation does not entail specific remuneration; the holder will receive the remuneration corresponding to their original position and will maintain the existing legal link with their institution of origin.
• Third. Indemnities for travel carried out for service reasons will be settled by their institution of origin, in accordance with current regulations.

The document occupies two pages of the bulletin, is framed within section 2.1 Appointments, situations and incidents, and bears text no. 14117.

The appointment turns childhood obesity into a line of work with its own management within the Andalusian public health system, which directly affects families with minors under follow-up and the pediatric and primary care teams that attend to these cases throughout Andalusia.

Source: Official Gazette of the Junta de Andalucía, no. 209, of October 28, 2026, section 2.1 Appointments, situations and incidents, pages 14117/1-14117/2 (official reference: BOJA26-209-00002-14117-01, text no. 14117).