Mental Health: From Historical Evolution to the Right to Community Care

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the historical evolution of mental health, starting from the premises on mental hygiene proposed by Clifford Whittingham Beers, to the current considerations of the World Health Organization, which define it as a state of well-being that transcends the absence of mental disorders, encompassing the capacity of individuals to perform actions in a productive way for themselves and for the community. Several factors were considered that may have a negative impact, particularly in Latin America, such as poverty, violence, crime, the continuity of the centralized hospital care system, as well as inefficient public policies that exacerbate the proliferation of mental pathologies, morbidities and mortality in this sector of the population. In view of this, a critical perspective of mental health care is postulated as a mechanism to guarantee respect for patients' rights, based on dialogic capacity, socialization and community care. Methodologically, it was a qualitative research, based on documentary and bibliographic analysis. It is concluded that there is a need for significant investment in mental health, in the design of public policies and in the formation of interdisciplinary teams that can address this social problem from different approaches, prioritizing respect for patients' rights.