It is necessary to affirm the collective dimension in the debate on mental health – 01/24/2024 – Public Health

Even though it is surrounded by many taboos, the topic of mental health is being much more debated in our society, especially after we have experienced the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. But it is up to us to question from what perspective it has been approached. This is a theme that is increasingly captured by the bias of diagnosis, the identification of a disorder, and based on the disease, which disregards the singularities of each person and their contexts.

It is not possible to talk about mental health without talking about human rights and basic social conditions. Mental health care, from this perspective, necessarily involves thinking about social injustices, increasingly fragile work relationships, the way we relate to minorities and vulnerable populations, the education model that we prioritize, the economic and political situation of the country, that is, in all aspects that directly affect people’s lives.

It is essential that any and all campaigns to raise awareness in society on mental health issues can stimulate debate on the topic, but that none of them disregard the social context in which they are inserted, that none of them neglect the demands for public policies that can effectively operate to promote health or provide welcoming spaces for segments that are in psychological distress. This debate cannot be restricted to the search for immediate solutions for individual cases, as this way we will not, in fact, change reality.

The right to health is part of a broad set of issues related to comprehensive health and well-being, as well as human rights. Highlighting the collective dimension of mental health in campaigns that aim to raise awareness in society on this topic is to make them assume a social and ethical commitment, preventing it from being just another instrument of blaming people for their own illness. We need to analyze our practices and the places of knowledge and power that we occupy, so that they are in fact at the service of guaranteeing fundamental rights, confronting violence, prejudices and objective and subjective conditions that produce suffering. Affirming the collective dimension in the debate on mental health is one way.

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Filipe Asth is a psychologist, doctor in public policy and consultant at the Institute of Health Policy Studies (IEPS)

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