ABSTRACT
The aim of this article is to analyze the model of provision of mental health beds in three general hospitals in the city of Rio de Janeiro and its relationship with the psychosocial care network. Interviews were conducted with local managers, a municipal manager and two former national mental health coordinators. The results showed that the studied hospitals offer restrictive spaces, with a predominance of pharmacological therapy and a strong influence of the biomedical model. The presence of mental health beds in hospitals has proved to be a successful experience in improving comprehensive care for users. The interaction with the psychosocial care network was presented as a recommended care model, but still facing weaknesses in its implementation. The research findings showed that the low implementation of mental health beds in a general hospital in the city is due to gaps in the training of professionals and the stigma that makes managers resist receiving users with mental disorders in their institutions. Recent changes in the national mental health policy in the sense of interrupting the closure of beds in psychiatric hospitals should lead to changes in the direction of psychiatric reform in the country.
KEYWORDS
Mental health; General hospitals; Deinstitutionalization; Brazil