Mental health care requires resources and government support – 01/02/2023 – Cida Bento

Audre Lorde, a black woman, feminist and poet, wrote about care and self-care in the late 1980s, when she was dealing with a serious health problem. She related care in the field of mental health to solidarity, sharing affection, loving kindness. And in this context, she emphasized the importance of this care being given collectively. Instead of isolation in institutions, the relationship with the family and the community was emphasized by Audre.

I was reminded of Audre’s perspective last week, when the debate on mental health, therapeutic communities and public policy intensified a lot and numerous civil society organizations, in this field, manifested themselves publicly.

After actively participating in a federal government transition process, involving dialogue with social movements, and the development of a policy proposal aimed at effective care for the Brazilian population, Abrasme (Brazilian Association of Mental Health) and many other Organizations that work in this field and in the field of human rights were surprised by the creation of a Department of Support for Therapeutic Communities (CTs) by the Ministry of Development, Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger.

The function of this newly created department is to support therapeutic communities that, in recent years, have been the target of several inspections that have pointed to serious violations of human rights.

Indications of torture, psychological and physical punishment, punishments, body searches, violations of religious freedom and sexual orientation are some of the violations that appear in the 2017 inspection report, by the Federal Council of Psychology, and are highlighted by the Amma Psique Institute and Negritude, in a public note, and by various movements, such as Despatologiza.

Recalling history, almost 40 years ago, in 1987, at the Congress of Mental Health Services Workers, which took place in Bauru (SP), the National Anti-Asylum Fight Day was born, whose main objective was precisely to face the violence of psychiatric methods, that used compulsory hospitalization and isolation, in addition to electroshock.

Decades later, the Psychiatric Reform Law was sanctioned, whose main characteristic is the effort to ensure more humane treatments, and it is in this path that the asylums were closed.

And this fight remains firm, as care in the field of mental health requires resources and government support.

And this investment must prioritize the SUS, the Raps (Psychosocial Care Network), the Caps (Psychosocial Care Centers), ensuring comprehensive mental health care. These bodies consider what defines the Psychiatric Reform Law and what was decided in the anti-asylum fight, which means, among other things, not isolating people.

Thus, it is worth noting that it is extremely important to ensure the construction of a policy committed to care in freedom, with the anti-racist struggle, with the guarantee of ethnic-racial diversity in management posts and services and permanent dialogue with social movements ( black, indigenous, anti-asylum, human rights, anti-prohibitionist, among others), as signaled by the National Front of Blacks and Blacks of Mental Health, together with Abrasme.

Our expectation is that the federal government, which has been acting strongly in the humanization of public services provided to Brazilian society, marked by years of anti-democratic measures, implements, in dialogue with civil society, a public policy that provides qualified and humane treatment in the field of mental health.

“A person becomes a person through other people. To dehumanize a person inexorably means to dehumanize oneself” (Desmond Tutu, “No Future without Forgiveness”, 2000).

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