Mental health in the practice of comprehensive care of the Family Health Program

Abstract

This study aims to investigate how mental health is being addressed by the comprehensive health care practice of the Family Health Program (FHP). To this purpose we performed a participative research in a unit of this Program in the city of Recife. After discussing the issue with the team it was decided to focus on the psychosocial aspects related to this comprehensive approach. A questionnaire was constructed and answered by a sample of 88 individuals under treatment with “controlled drugs”. The profile of these patients showed a trend to precarious social insertion. The therapeutic course demonstrates that the FHP is not working as an “entrance door” to mental health. We observed some commonsense conceits such as: convulsion, nerves, depression and mental deficiency. The most commonly used drugs were: diazepam, phenobarbital, haloperidole. 44,3% of patients who participated in the study had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital before. In our final considerations we emphasize the importance of understanding the common knowledge of the patients to allow for an integrative health/mental health care approach and highlight the possibility of providing therapeutic care through service networks.