Mental health in children and adolescents: vision of the professionals on challenges and possibilities in building up intersectoral networks

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the possibilities and challenges in building intersectoral networks in mental health in the professional’s view involved in the care for children and adolescents treated at the Child and Adolescent Psychosocial Care Center. Methods: A qualitative, descriptive and exploratory research, held from May to June 2014, performed a town in southern Brazil. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 26 workers intersectoral networking and submitted to thematic analysis. Results: The articulation of different services and intersectoral care devices, and challenges to be overcome, the individual treatment plan, social policies that realize the real needs of users, including family and the medical-hegemonic model, were pointed out as possibilities. Conclusion: The care raised to the intersectoral level is a necessity and a way to achieve new perspectives on care and its articulations to consolidate the Child and Adolescent Mental Health policy.

Children and Youth Mental Health from the perspective of workers in a health network

“…The fact that children and adolescents in psychological distress have belatedly entered the Brazilian public health agenda is partly explained by the belief that these subjects would not experience psychological illness and madness (Couto & Delgado, 2015). However, as even brought by this research (Class 1), this public brings the most diverse sufferings, linked to learning (inattention, delays in schooling), behavior (agitation, hyperactivity, aggressiveness), the most varied types of violence -including that self-provoked, the use of psychoactive substances, among others, also found to be prevalent in other studies (Nunes et al, 2019;Ribeiro & Miranda, 2019). And, if on the one hand, in some territories children and adolescents in distress seem to remain invisible, the results show us that in others there is a growing demand for interventions in SM for this public: "...…”

“…This principle represents one of the challenges of the MH network when caring for children and adolescents in distress, which would be the ability to articulate outwards, involving devices as the school, the justice system, social welfare, leisure and cultural institutions, in the prevention, promotion, and health care. The composition of this network requires the existence of an articulated collective, capable of producing care that includes resources in the territory, interdisciplinary work, and permanent dialogue (Couto & Delgado, 2010;Nunes et al, 2019;Tszesnioski, et al, 2015).…”

Access to the care network by children and adolescents with special health needs

“…No que se refere ao acesso, está relacionado com a utilização do serviço, independentemente do problema de saúde que afeta as crianças ou do número de vezes que estas procuram pelo serviço. As crianças e adolescentes requerem acesso aos diferentes níveis de complexidade e dispositivos que compõem a rede de cuidados articulados e intersetorial, a fim de garantir cuidado integral e contínuo em diferentes níveis de apoio (4) .…”