Mental health assistance for black children and adolescents and racism

Abstract

The study aimed to identify strategies used by a team of a Psychosocial Care Center (CAPSij) to assist black and brown children and adolescents with health problems. The assumptions of the study were supported by the vast field of studies on race relations, the paradigm that also underpinned the analyses. Eighteen workers from the Brasilândia CAPSij were interviewed. The interviews were guided by a semi-structured questionnaire and the thematic analysis for data interpretation was structured having race/color as the analytical category. The results showed that the provision of care for children and adolescents who express suffering due to the experience of racism, or who have it as an important dimension, demands, of the professional, spaces for awareness, information and literacy regarding racial formations. In addition, it calls for the development of strategies to combat institutional racism, especially in an intersectoral perspective.