Articulations between the Global Mental Health project and the cultural aspects of care in the Psychosocial Care and Primary Health Care Network in Brazil

Abstract

The article was aimed at discussing the centrality of the concept of culture and its implications in the Global Mental Health (GMH) project, not only from a macro perspective, but also at the local level-more specifically in the Brazilian Unified Health System in the relationship between the devices of the Psychosocial Care Network (PCN) and primary health care (PCH). Therefore, the discussion was concentrated in two different blocks: in the first one, we reflected about the GMH project from the perspective of guaranteeing the right to health, considering sociocultural aspects of mental suffering. In the second block, we will discuss how this perspective can contribute to the increase of care practices at the interface between primary health care and mental health in the Unified Health System. We concluded that considering culture is fundamental to conduct good mental health practice, so that GMH is necessarily polyphonic, while guaranteeing and universalizing the right to health, being a powerful ally in the fight for the defense of SUS (Unified Health System).

Psychiatry and mental health teaching programs of eight portuguese-speaking schools of medicine: A comparative analysis

“…In this chapter, we make use of Culver et al ( 35 ) who propose that the program of the discipline should not be limited only to the ethical aspects in psychiatry but must also include the religiosity of communities for a better understanding and perception of mental disorders, and on this matter, culture is increasingly becoming an issue for mental healthcare provider ( 36 ). Local practitioners and policymakers actively neglect cultural determinants in the mental health field ( 37 ).…”