Reforma psiquiátrica em Montes Claros: perspectiva histórica

Abstract

Psychiatry, constituted as a discipline that approaches mental illness based on the production of a knowledge mediated by science, establishes the moral treatment as the only way to restore the reason to the insane, appointing psychiatric hospitals as the main institutional apparatus for its exile. When presenting the notion of deinstitutionalization, Basaglia introduces a new possibility for the treatment of mental illnesses. In Brazil, the possibility of reorganizing health services has been strengthened since the Health Reform. Concerning the treatment of mental illnesses, there have been the so-called substitutive services aimed at reorganizing mental health assistance. Since the beginning of the 80´s, an attempt to change institutional apparatuses for the care of patients with mental disorders has been seen in Montes Claros. However, even before these attempts, the municipality had already featured in the national scene for being one of the towns in Brazil that best developed a pioneer experience of decentralization and prioritization of health services. This study was aimed at establishing the way in which mental health substitutive services were organized in the town of Montes Claros from 1980 – when there was the Rural Psychology Internship – until today. It assesses the importance of such services and their impact on the improvement of mental health services to their users. It was observed that the substitutive services established according to what is stated by the Psychiatric Reform contribute to the deinstitutionalization process, what promotes social inclusion for people with mental disorders. Nevertheless, it is necessary a constant evaluation of these services in order to have an adequacy to the proper needs of each municipality.