Mental Health Forum in the State of Espírito Santo: the configuration of a public space
Name: ROSSANA DOS REIS
Publication date: 29/06/2009
Advisor:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| MARIA LUCIA TEIXEIRA GARCIA | Advisor * |
Examining board:
| Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ANA TARGINA RODRIGUES FERRAZ | Internal Examiner * |
| MARIA LUCIA TEIXEIRA GARCIA | Advisor * |
Summary: This study aims at identifying how the democratic-participative and the neoliberal projects have gone through the operating dynamics of the Mental Health Forum of Espírito Santo (FSMES) from its beginning in 1999 to 2008/1. The research problem is to identify the tension between these two main antagonistic political projects present in the Brazilian mental health policies (the psychiatric reform project versus the privatist project excluding subjects with mental disorders) taking place at the
FSMES. Documental research was carried out based on seven management reports (from 2000 to 2007); on three action plans (from 2000 to 2003; 2004 to 2007; 2008 to 2011) of the state mental health coordination of SESA State Department of Health; on ten attendance lists of the FSMES meetings between 2005 and 2008; and on a
1995 document about the proposal of reorienting the care model in the state that year. Five semi-structured interviews were carried out with participant actors of the FSMES or key-respondents of this space. Systematic observation of the FSMES meetings (between 2007 and 2008) was also performed. The respondents discourse and the discourse printed on the documents indicate a political and ideological bias
of the FSMES towards the psychiatric reform process. FSMES is considered a privileged mental health space by its actors. The political project defended is psychiatric reform. The professionals and/or managers of the state and municipal spheres are segments that continually take part in this space, WHEREas users and organized civil society s participation is limited and shy. In this period under analysis, the actors in this space made contributions in the FSMES space towards the psychiatric reform process in the state. The respondents in this study reported advances in the history of this space such as: number of people it can gather and discussion topic relating mental health to health care in general. Some obstacles were also identified,
such as: tendency to decrease the number of meetings (which shows an instable periodicity) and difficulty to ensure the continuous participation of users. The analysis shows that the FSMES has been built in a counter-hegemonic direction, defending the psychiatric reform project. Also, it is being led to contribute to the process of implementing a new mental health care model. Since this process is not linear, it
faces difficulties that should be contextualized in the social-political setting of hegemonic neoliberal policies that encourage both the depoliticization of society and significant investments in the private sector.
