The aim of this study is to understand how health care is given by the basic health attention to people who have mental disorders. It was carried out in a suburb, assisted only by The Family Health Program, in the outskirts of the borough of Maceió, in the state of Alagoas, Brazil. This study searched for the material for this comprehension in this scenery and patient's experience reports their families and professionals of health. A qualitative approach of the study case was based on Lüdke and André's theory for data collection and Minayo's theory for final analysis. This study case showed that the health care to people given by the basic health attention who have mental disorders had been medicated, hospitalised and fragmented. The professionals of health, as well as, the families have reproduced the committal's logical, that is reinforced for insufficiency and inefficiency of the mental health public system. The Family Health Program, in this case, isn't able to change the logical centred in the biomedical model, its way of care isn't coherent with the principles of Sanitary and Psychiatric Reform. The penetration of the professionals in social nets is still very small and the dynamic of theirs actions is individual and passive. Forms of approaches founded in listening, in welcome, and in linking are rarely used.
Health care; Basic health attention; Mental disorders; Family Health Program