Rede de atenção à saúde mental de base comunitária: a experiência de Santo André

Psychiatric impairments are a critical public health problem. For many years, the only therapy available to individuals with mental disorders was hospitalization at psychiatric institutions. Nowadays the World Health Organization recommends community-based services as a model of mental health treatment. Therefore, the aim of this study is to describe the characteristics of a community-based mental health care network in the city of Santo Andre, state of Sao Paulo. A descriptive and retrospective study was carried out, based on secondary data from the period between 1987 and 2006. The study investigated the history, infrastructure, human recourses, production, practices and work processes of the mental health services of Santo Andre. Documents of the Municipal Mental Health Program of the Municipal Health Department of Santo Andre, and of the Jose Martins de Araujo Junior Association/Social Organization De Volta Para Casa were analyzed. The Municipal Health Department promoted the transformation of the mental health services in the studied period: from assistance provided exclusively at asylums to a network of mental health services whose model was based on the community, focusing on the psychosocial aspect of the disease and with multi-professional teams. These actions in Santo Andre corroborated the civil society's efforts and the development of changes in the hospital-centered model.