Articulations between the Global Mental Health project and the cultural aspects of care in the Psychosocial Care and Primary Health Care Network in Brazil

Maria Fernanda Cruz Coutinho,Clarice Moreira Portugal,Mônica De Oliveira Nunes,Gisele O’Dwyer

doi:10.1590/s0103-73312020300219

Maria Fernanda Cruz Coutinho, Clarice Moreira Portugal + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/s0103-73312020300219

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Abstract

Abstract The article was aimed at discussing the centrality of the concept of culture and its implications in the Global Mental Health (GMH) project, not only from a macro perspective, but also at the local level-more specifically in the Brazilian Unified Health System in the relationship between the devices of the Psychosocial Care Network (PCN) and primary health care (PCH). Therefore, the discussion was concentrated in two different blocks: in the first one, we reflected about the GMH project from the perspective of guaranteeing the right to health, considering sociocultural aspects of mental suffering. In the second block, we will discuss how this perspective can contribute to the increase of care practices at the interface between primary health care and mental health in the Unified Health System. We concluded that considering culture is fundamental to conduct good mental health practice, so that GMH is necessarily polyphonic, while guaranteeing and universalizing the right to health, being a powerful ally in the fight for the defense of SUS (Unified Health System).

Highlights

In order to address the centrality of the concept of culture and its implications for the Global Mental Health (GMH) project, from a macro perspective, and at the local level, the discussion will be presented in two blocks
We will try, based on the problem of the territory, to discuss how the articulation between mental health and primary care within the scope of the Unified Health System (SUS) is a strategic element to think about the place of culture in mental health and about the possibilities and limits of the GMH project in the Brazilian context
The first series of articles published in the Lancet on Global Mental Health (GMH) dates from 2007-2008

Summary

Introduction

We will try, based on the problem of the territory, to discuss how the articulation between mental health and primary care within the scope of the Unified Health System (SUS) is a strategic element to think about the place of culture in mental health and about the possibilities and limits of the GMH project in the Brazilian context. In this regard, the issue of Common Mental Disorders (CMD) will be addressed from the perspective of its position at the crossroads between the fields of primary health care and mental health

Characterizing global Mental Health

The polysemy inherent to culture

The context and experience of illness

Findings

Final considerations