Inclusive practices in the mental health network: between difficulties and facilities

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to identify facilities and difficulties of professionals working in the mental health network to develop practices of social inclusion with mental disorder patients. Materials and Methods: This is an empirical research, with a descriptive nature - interpretive and qualitative, performed in the mental health care network of the municipality of Campina Grande/Paraiba/Brazil with 19 professionals, from June to July 2010. The empirical material was analyzed by using the content analysis technique, thematic and categorical type, in accordance to the resolution 196/96 of the National Health Council. Results: Among the difficulties, the financial, material and structural resources appeared as a factor that impedes progress in the consolidation of the users' social inclusion, being necessary intersectoral strategies. The prejudice and the stigma represent a challenge in the psychosocial attention. As facilities, stand out the professionals availability to work with this segment, besides the training in continuous education that has allowed exchanges of knowledge, basing the interdisciplinarity required for the process of team work. Conclusion: In this context, there is a need for caution from the managers facing the difficulties identified, since this fact can interfere directly in the care that is being offered to users. However, the facilities found in the study, beyond the borders of mental health care, is a fact that consolidates the psychiatric reform, even in a gradually way in this country.