Primary care and collaborative care in children and adolescents psychosocial interventions: facilitators and barriers

Considering the care gap in child and youth psychosocial care, the articulation of the intra-sectoral network is an important strategy to promote less fragmented care flows. The study analyzes facilitators and obstacles to collaborative care between the Family Health Strategy (ESF) and a Child and Youth Psychosocial Care Center (CAPSi) in Rio de Janeiro/RJ. This is an exploratory study with a qualitative approach, which main methodological tools were focus and intervention groups. From the proposed thematic axes, we identified that the perception of child and adolescent mental health problems by ESF workers was named by the behavioral changes located in a context of vulnerability. The main obstacles to implementing actions were lack of knowledge about how to provide care, work process-related issues and network disarticulation. Even if ESF professionals are able to identify mental health problems of children and adolescents, care actions are fragile and network articulation is practically nonexistent. Collaborative care was recognized as a strategy to validate child psychosocial care.

Community mental health services; Primary care; Health promotion; Children; Adolescents