Access Game

Abstract

Abstract This activity will last 40 minutes. The Access game and easy to play and aims to discuss and trigger reflections about the path of people with mental care needs seeking access and integrality of care in health system. Histories of three characters who represent people seeking access to mental health care in Primary health care (PHC) will be presented. The board game will be set up on the floor, allowing participants to walk around the board, which will represent the path do access PHC. During the game, participants will find figures that illustrate and trigger discussions about the barriers of access to mental health care, as well as PHC's strengths and strategies to overcome these barriers and guarantee integrality of care. Figures that illustrate PHC strengths and strategies (ex: community health worker, collaborative care, and intersectionality) make the player move forward, while those that represent characters’ access barriers to the service [eg: stigma, low professionals’ skills and supply-based management (and not on the population needs)] make the player return some squares. Also, players will be invited to share examples of their professional experiences, pointing out what barriers were identified and strategies that contributed to overcome it. By sharing their experiences, participants will advance a few more spaces. Game's components are: 1 board, 1 dice, 3 characters that represent people who use the health service, and cards with illustrations and explanatory texts. The winner will be the one with the character that manages to overcome the barriers and improve access based on the strengths PHC elements, arriving first at the end of the journey, which is represented by access to integrality of care. Participants will have the opportunity to recognize which strategies contribute to overcome mental health care access barriers. Thus, even if there is only a winner, everyone wins, taking the knowledge acquired in the discussions to their professional practices.