Mental health care production in the emergency and urgent care department of a general hospital in the municipality os Resende, RJ.
Psychiatric Reform; Mental Health; health care production; cartography.
The Psychiatric Reform movement, which began in Brazil in the late 1970s, represents a milestone in mental health care. It is oriented toward dismantling asylum-based structures by deconstructing the knowledge, practices, cultures, and values instituted by traditional psychiatry, and it proposes a reformulation of the care paradigm grounded in psychosocial care. More than four decades later, this process has been consolidated as the fundamental framework of the country’s official mental health care policy. Nevertheless, significant challenges persist regarding the provision of care for patients with mental health needs who seek assistance at non-specialized emergency and urgent care services, particulary emergency department units within general hospitals. Although these units are part of the Psychosocial Care Network, the scientific literature highlights numerous difficulties in such settings, pointing to an operational gap in mental health care provision. In this context, the objective of this project is to map and analyze the process of care delivery to patients with mental health needs at an emergency and urgent care department of a general hospital located in the municipality of Resende, Rio de Janeiro. This is a qualitative study employing the cartographic method, which aims to follow care production processes. In the data production process, we will propose the use of devices such as a field diary, unstructured interviews, and the analyzer flowchart. Data analysis will be conducted through reflexive thematic analysis. The research will take place in a municipal general hospital in the city of Resende/RJ and will include as participants patients with mental health needs, their family members and/or companions, as well as hospital staff. In this manner, we aim to understand how care is produced, as well as the challenges involved in promoting transformative processes, in order to contribute to ongoing discussions and reflections in the field of Psychiatric Reform.