Perception of mental health professionals about the Psychosocial Care Network in Iguatu, State of Ceará, Brazil

Abstract

In the 1980s, with the Psychiatric Reform movement, the debate on new paradigms of mental health care began. This article, which was prepared for the conclusion of the specialization in Collective Mental Health, in the form of a Multiprofessional Residency in Health, by the Ceará School of Public Health, aimed to understand the conception of the professionals of the Psychosocial Care Center of a municipality in the interior of the State of Ceará on the provision of services recommended by the National Policy on Mental Health, Alcohol and other Drugs. A qualitative research methodology was used, using semi-structured interviews with professionals from the Psychosocial Care Network in the city of Iguatu, State of Ceará, to contemplate the focus of the work. For the analysis of the interviews, we relied on the dialogue of critical researchers on the Mental Health policy. At the end of the study, it was noticed that a lot of progress has been made and much still needs to be done in the municipality's Mental Health Policy. Therefore, professionals, immersed in the extensive demand that comes to Psychosocial Care Center, would need to organize themselves, realize that they do or end up reinforcing practices that do not agree with what the principles of emancipation and freedom of users precognizes.