According to the CNS (National Council of Health), the 5th National Conference on Mental Health will begin this Monday (11) in Brasilia, after a number of changes. The meeting did not even include the Union Budget until 2022.

The theme of the conference, which runs until next Thursday (14), is: “Mental health policy as a right: defending health care at large, moving forward and guaranteeing psychosocial care services in SUS.”

The 5th National Conference on Mental Health runs until next Thursday (14) in Brasília – Photo: Fernando Fraçao/Agência Brasil

The purpose of the conference is to offer recommendations for the formulation of a National Mental Health Policy and to strengthen mental health programs and actions.

Topics to be discussed at the conference include therapeutic communities, involuntary hospitalization and care in the community. Over the course of 4 days, representatives from different sectors of society will discuss and provide direction for a more comprehensive public policy in the field of mental health.

The national mental health conference, organized by CNS and supported by the Department of Health’s Department of Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drugs, is expected to attract around 2,000 people.

In addition to delegates elected at the municipal and state levels, the national conference would have approximately 160 delegates elected from free conferences to be held through the end of September, including the 1st National Free Conference on Black Mental Health and the National Free Conference. Conference of the National Forum of Trade Union Centers for the Protection of Workers’ Health.

History of the National Conference on Mental Health

The story of the struggle and construction of public policy in the field of mental health in Brazil cannot be told without the participation of conferences. Over 36 years, four national publications were published. The first, in 1987, was classified by the council as a “historical milestone in Brazilian psychiatry” because it emphasized that national mental health policies should be integrated into national social development policies.

However, according to CNS, in 1993, the second national meeting provided the basis for understanding the relationship between health and disease as a fundamental process in the right to treatment and the organization of an integrated health care network. In 2001, the third conference took place less than a year after the adoption of the Mental Health Law (Law 10,216/2001) and represented “a strengthening of the consensus around the proposal for reform of mental health care.”

In 2010, held for the first time on an intersectoral basis, the fourth conference brought together 46 thousand participants in the preparatory and national stages on a scenario that, according to the council, differs from the scenario found 9 years earlier. “On the one hand, participants recognized concrete achievements in expanding and diversifying the network of public services. On the other hand, they revealed the gaps, complexity and multifaceted, interprofessional and cross-sectoral nature of the implementation of Act 10216 after almost a decade of its implementation.”

See the link for the full schedule.