Financing public mental health: a case study of Rio de Janeiro (2019 to 2022)

Abstract

Mental health in the Unified Health System has experienced a dispute between disease-centered care and socio-environmental determinants. The study of state co-financing of the Psychosocial Care Network in Rio de Janeiro (2019 to 2022) aimed to explain how theoretical-conceptual elements about mental health were relevant in interfederative financing decisions in this period. A review of federal and state regulations of the Intermanagement Committees (Bipartite and Tripartite), technical notes and Fala.BR site was carried out. The documents demonstrated the interfederative rupture in relation to territorial and community-based mental health care. During this period, while the Ministry of Health directed its agenda towards outpatient and specialized care, Rio de Janeiro increased the state’s financial resource for mental health by R$ 175 million to strengthen Psychosocial Care Centers and Therapeutic Residential Services qualified or eligible for qualification. The deinstitutionalization of asylum survivors and the expansion of the care network for crisis situations are results found in Rio de Janeiro. The conclusion of the study suggests the construction of an interfederative monitoring methodology for public mental health financing so that the delivery of care is increasingly closer to the needs of citizens and territorial vulnerabilities.