Mental health assistance in Primary Care: the perspective of professionals from the Family Health Strategy

Asistencia en salud mental en la Atención Primaria: perspectiva de los profesionales de la Estrategia de Salud Familiar

ABSTRACT

Objective:

To learn about the perceptions of the professionals who work in Primary Health Care about mental health care.

Methods:

Descriptive and qualitative study, carried out with 29 health workers through open and individual interviews. The IRaMuTeQ® software was used to organize the data which, then, was submitted to a content analysis process in the thematic modality.

Results:

Three classes emerged from the content analysis: “Perceptions about the mental health care provided in the city”, “The biomedical paradigm in mental healthcare”, and “Elements for the construction of a new way for professionals to act in mental health”.

Final considerations:

It was found that, despite the good infrastructure of the services and the elements pointed at by the professionals to create a new way to act, they do not do so, and the responsibility falls, mostly, on the psychologist to carry out these activities.

Descriptors:
Nursing; Mental Health Assistence; Primary Health Care; Family Health Strategy; Health Policy