Computational Tracking of Mental Health in Youth: Latin American Contributions to a Low-Cost and Effective Solution for Early Psychiatric Diagnosis

The early onset of mental disorders can lead to serious cognitive damage, and timely interventions are needed in order to prevent them. In patients of low socioeconomic status, as is common in Latin America, it can be hard to identify children at risk. Here, we briefly introduce the problem by reviewing the scarce epidemiological data from Latin America regarding the onset of mental disorders, and discussing the difficulties associated with early diagnosis. Then we present computational psychiatry, a new field to which we and other Latin American researchers have contributed methods particularly relevant for the quantitative investigation of psychopathologies manifested during childhood. We focus on new technologies that help to identify mental disease and provide prodromal evaluation, so as to promote early differential diagnosis and intervention. To conclude, we discuss the application of these methods to clinical and educational practice. A comprehensive and quantitative characterization of verbal behavior in children, from hospitals and laboratories to homes and schools, may lead to more effective pedagogical and medical intervention

Trajetória do hospital dia Dr. Elger nunes: um recorte histórico da psiquiatria e saúde mental no Rio Grande do Norte

In Brazil, the mental health network proposed by the Psychiatric Reform inserts the intermediate and replacement services in the pursuit of alignment or resocialization of patients with mental and behavioral disorder in the community. Was adopted, among other services, the Center for Psychosocial Care, Home Therapy, Sheltered Home, Day Hospital and psychiatric beds in general hospital. In this context, the State of Rio Grande do Norte implanted the Day Hospital Dr. Elger Nunes (HDEN) in Natal / RN in 1996, linked to State Department of Public Health. At HDEN happened a multi and interdisciplinary therapeutic work, besides being the scene of disciplinary practices, and extension projects for graduate courses in Higher Education Institutions in the city. However, with the process of decentralization of local services, the hospital was terminated by an administrative state act in 2006, leaving damage to the activities provided to users, disciplinary practices and extension activities. From this breakdown, the objective was to narrate the trajectory of HDEN through a multidisciplinary team of professionals and teachers who used it as a field of disciplinary practices. It is characterized as a documental and qualitative, backed in the technique of thematic oral history, following the phases: authorization of the interviewee, interview recording, transcription, textualization and transcreation of the material obtained. We used documents, ordinances, general reports of activities, among others, plus interviews to fifteen employees who used this service, being thirteen part of the multidisciplinary team of professionals and two graduation professors of health care area, nursing and medicine. The stories collected were organized according to the technique chosen, respecting its steps. In preparing the body subjected to ALCESTE computer program, priority was given to the vital tone for the formation of categories and classes elected by the program, structured in three thematic areas. In the first axis, called Trajectory of HDEN, were recalled the beginning of its activities, the steps of that time, their activities, and its actors - users, families, professionals, and teaching practices. The second axis has dealt with the process of extinction of HDEN, rescuing the feelings of employees, the main reasons given at the time and immediate postextinction scenario. And the third axis revealed in an articulated form the situation of mental health in Natal / RN, listing to the challenges and prospects for the psychosocial care, starting from the trajectory of HDEN with emphasis on activities. Moreover, the trajectory of HDEN provides recognition of the historical basis outlined in the constitution of the network of substitute services present in the current scenario of psychosocial care in the city of Natal and in RN.

Atenção à saúde mental na Estratégia Saúde da Família no Município de Parnamirim/RN: opinião dos profissionais, dos portadores de transtornos mentais e seus acompanhantes

This study aims to analyze and compare the opinion of professionals, managers and users about the mental health care in the Family Health Strategy (FHS). It is characterized as an Operations Research or Health System Research with a cross-sectional design and a descriptive quantitative nature. The study was developed from the application of the Opinion Measurement Scale allied to techniques of observation and structured interview in the city of Parnamirim / RN. The sample consists of 409 subjects, 209 professionals of the Family Health Strategy, 30 of the Oral Health Strategy, 19 of the Family Health Support Center, 24 directors of Basic Health Units, plus 68 users with mental disorders and 59 caregivers, respecting the ethical parameters of Resolution 196/96 of the National Health Council, trial registration number: CAAE 0003.0.051.000-11. Quantitative data were submitted to the Epi-info 3.5.2 for analysis. The network of mental health in Parnamirim involves the flow between the FHS, Psychosocial Care Centers, clinics and hospitals, having as main barriers the fragility of the referral and counter-referral system, of the municipal health conferences, of the FHS teams by the limitations in material and human resources as well as the population´s lack of acknowledge about the organization of the mental health network, issues that affect the integral attention. Even though the FHS professionals recognize the importance of their actions, they question their role in mental health care, experiencing difficulties in accessing psychiatric services (76.5%). Although most agree that the mentally ill is best treated in the family than in hospital (65.2%), the community health workers were the predominant category in the partial or total disagreement of this statement (40.8%), who is the professional in greater contact with the family. Nevertheless the caregivers miss the support of the FHS as the main focus of attention is on revenue control. The views of professionals, mental patients and caregivers converged in several statements, showing the main weaknesses to be focused by the mental health network of the city, as the perceptions that: (a) physical strength is needed to take care of mental patients for its tendency to aggression, requiring it to stay in the sanatorium for representing danger to society, (b) only a psychiatrist can help the person with emotional problems, (c) the user of alcohol and drugs does not necessarily develop mental illness, (d) the access barriers and doubts about the quality of psychiatric services, (e) caring of a mental health patient does not bring suffering to professionals. Therefore, the commitment to consensus building, monitoring and evaluation of the network are important mechanisms for an effective management system, reflecting in the importance of strengthening the health conferences and approximating different institutions. The results reinforce the importance of strengthening primary care through programs of continuing education focusing on the actions and functions of professionals in accordance with its competences and duties what contribute to the organization and response of mental health care, favoring user´s care and the promotion of family health

O ambulatório de Saúde Mental no contexto da Reforma Psiquiátrica em Natal/RN

The years 1990 disclose the consolidation of the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform project, assumed as official politics by the Health Department, also stirring up discussions, lines of direction and new ways of care. Substitutive services to the psychiatric hospital as CAPS, conviviality centers, therapeutical residences and ambulatory clinics are implemented. This work analyzes the relations that the Specialized Ambulatory Clinic of Ribeira establishes to the services of Mental Health of the public system in the city of Natal/RN, as well as its adjustment to the proposal of the Psychiatric Reform. Through semi-structured interviews and observation, it was possible to gather data which allowed picturing a general characterization of the service: activities, technical group, joint with other institutions, daily routine organization. Such institution develops activities that surpass the traditional character of a clinic- in other words, the psychological/medical appointments - and it mainly greets the ones proceeding from CAPS and psychiatric hospitals. It offers group activities, psychiatric appointments, therapeutical workshops, sheltering and strolls, among others. The institution is composed by a multi-professional team of psychiatrists, psychologists, occupational therapists, nurse s aide and art-educator. The joint of this service with others that make part of the Mental Health Assistance network in Natal is incipient. Due to this fact, some actions and activities that could and should be developed together are just not. Although facing difficulties, the professionals of the Ambulatory Clinic of Ribeira are able to achieve good results and establish care in Mental Health that prioritize sheltering, listening and respect to the user s individuality. The Ambulatory Clinic of Ribeira is organized according to the paradigm of the Psychiatric Reform. Therefore, it offers an attention that stimulates the re-socialization of the users and the exercise of the citizenship and autonomy of those

Em defesa da reforma psiquiátrica :por um amanhã que há de renascer sem pedir licença

Insanity was victim of several arbitrary acts perpetrated on behalf of the science. Psychiatric reform constitues an important movement which has attempted to rescue dignity and humanity in the treatment of mental disorder patients. Some countries have advanced in the implement of substutive models that work on the construction of a new social place for madness. The model of attention to mental health in Brazil has also suffered extensive modifications due to the wearing out of the psychiatric hospital model. In Santos, a town in the State of Sao Paulo, we have found a landmark in the development of an anti internment politics, through the creation of a dail care service, including psychosocial assistance. It is in this context that it has been founded in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, the NAPS and CAPS ( Nucleus and Centres of Psychosocial Attention), municipal strategies that put into effect the law # 10.216/2001, which estabilishes the gradual extinction of psychiatric hospitals. This work has the purpose of carrying out a study about the historical process of psychiatric reform implantation in the State of Rio Grande do Norte, emphasizing the actors involved in process, their trajectory, achievements, improvements, and the movement s perspectives of achieving the ideal of reinstating mental disorder patients. In order to accomplish this purpose, it was necessary to understand the process occurred at the Municipal Secretary s Office for Health, since 1992, for it was the impelling experience towards the reflections about the psychiatric reform in the State of Rio Grande do Norte. The instruments used for this work were documentary analysis, through reports, legislation and handbooks, as well as the staments of people involved in this process. Through the statements analysis, we attempted to estabilish the social actors identity, their perception, emphasizing congruences and incongruences concerning the history of psychiatric reform in the State of Rio Grande do Norte. It is also analyzed the contribution of Psychology in this process, which has become a protagonist in the struggle for the rights of mental disorder patients

Moradores crônicos de hospital psiquiátrico: um desafio à desinstitucionalização

The existence of chronic inhabitants in the psychiatric hospitals imposes a challenge to the Psychiatric Reform, that proposes things such as the gradual and progressive way to extinct mental institutions, once the permanence of the hospital in the system is only necessary because there is not a net of well structured substitute services capable of receiving that demand. This work considered relevant to deepen the knowledge about those people who passes their lives jailed by the walls of psychiatric hospitals and compose significant part of the world population. It also aimed to investigate the problem relative to the condition of being an inhabitant of a psychiatric hospital the Dr. João Machado Hospital (HJM), in the city of Natal/RN. The paper used different points of view (patients , families and professionals ) to define the profile of the inhabitants, to identify the possibility of insertion in substituting social equipment, to know the expectations of the inhabitants and their relatives regarding to the exit of the life shelter, to investigate the demands related to the net of cares social support for making feasible the discharge and to identify the difficulties that are involved in the exit of the chronic inhabitant of the hospital. There were defined three methodological phases: delineation of the identification, socio-economic and clinical profile of the inhabitants of the HJM; semi-structured interviews with professionals; and open interviews with inhabitants and family. It concluded that the psychiatric institutionalization contributes to the generation of chronic inhabitants in the psychiatric hospitals. Among the professionals, it was detached the defense of desospitalization, but an existence of devices of the asylum model. The relatives showed a resistance to participate in the care and the inhabitants exposed their desire to leave the hospital, as well like the wish of permanence. It was considered important: the construction of an extra-hospital net that enables to desinstitutionalization; the qualification of the technical; orientation to the family, stimulating its participation in the process of caring; give freedom to the individuals in mental suffering, enabling them to be ahead of their lives and express their desires and opinions; the implementation of an extended clinic that is capable of building new possibilities; and a subjectivity guided by the social enclosure

Mulheres em situação de violência e atenção em saúde mental: um estudo no município de Natal (RN)

The present study aims to meet the attention given to women with mental health needs in specialized services for the fight against violence against women, as well as psychosocial care network in the municipality of NatalRN. It is a qualitative research characterized as research-intervention that took place in the year 2011. The study started in the Centre of Reference in which individual semi-structured interviews were carried out directed to the coaching staff and manager, in order to know the care offered in relation to the aforementioned clientele. From the Reference Centre were identified through analysis of registration records, the routes traversed by users through the network of psychosocial care and hospital network. After the identification of the same were visited two day-care Centers, two psychiatric hospitals, a basic health Unit and the local shelter. In these organizations was investigated the reception and procedures offered to users in situations of violence, the knowledge of policies for women and the coordination with the attention to women, through interviews with semi-structured individual scripts directed to professionals. The interviews were analyzed taking as starting point the theoretical framework of French Institutional Analysis, which includes the assumption of events analysers for the critical reading of dimensions introduced in the practices of care of the teams that took part in the study. The survey results revealed difficulties on the part of the same host of users with this profile, both in the face of violence as services in mental health services. This fact led to the lack of support under the guarantee of their rights, ceasing the possibilities of confronting the situations of violence, as well as in the context of mental health care

Perfis e práticas dos profissionais de saúde mental em dois hospitais psiquiátricos de grande porte

In the Brazilian network of psychosocial care, health professionals are important actors in the process of transformation of mental health public policies among various services. In the reality of psychiatric hospitals, one should understand the need to expand the debate about the current context of practices developed. This study aimed at analyzing the process of psychiatric reform and the mental health policy in the State of Rio Grande do Norte (RN) from the profiles and practices of higher-level professionals in two psychiatric hospitals. This is a cross-sectional and descriptive research, with quantitative and qualitative data, conducted in two psychiatric hospitals of RN. The universe of the target population was 95 professionals, taking into account the margin of error of 8%, non-response rate and the inclusion criteria: holding effective link with the institution by means of approval in public examination for, at least, six months, being state or municipal servant; having a minimum weekly workload of 20 hours in service; participating in care and/or activities with patients and families in a direct way. The final sample consisted of 60 professionals. The tool for data collection was a questionnaire with closed and semi-open questions about socioeconomic profile, and mental health policies, practices and training. Quantitative data were tabulated in the statistical software SPSS, and simple and bivariate statistics, chi-square type, was used for analysis by adopting the significance level with the value p<0,05. In order to analyze data, the content analysis of Bardin was used. The qualitative findings obtained with the semi-open questions in Analyse Lexicale par Context d'un Ensemble de Segments de Texte (ALCESTE) were grouped into four thematic axes: Professional action in mental health; Mental health training; Scenarios of psychiatric reform and psychiatric hospitals; Mental health policies and practices: challenges for professionals in hospitals. The profile of professionals has revealed the majority of women (89,7%), nurses (36,7%), aged 50-59 years (42,9%), weekly workload of 40 hours (52,4% ), time of completion of graduation from six to 15 years (57%), and 21,4% reported to have specialization in mental health. Regarding the practices developed in individual care, it was found an association between those who do not build or partially conducts the therapeutic project and those who conduct care related to observation and annotation. In family care, it was obtained care consultation during crisis; and, in group care, recreational activities. In the analysis of thematic axes, it was noted that, despite changes identified in the profiles and practices of higher-level professionals in care services for mental health, with the implementation of new public policies for this field, the findings indicate the confluence of asymmetries and divergences in the actions of the teams in psychiatric hospitals, difficulties in managing services, frequent readmissions, reduced quantitative of available services and equipment, high demand of users, disarticulation of the network of psychosocial care, and the very shortage of skilled human resources to compose these services. Accordingly, the evidenced scenarios partially outline the current political and ideological mismatch of the national process of psychiatric reform that denies the role of care actions conducted within hospitals, although it has not gone far enough with the creation of new services that justify the total extinction of this institution

Matriciamento em saúde mental: atuação de núcleos de apoio à saúde da família

In the context of break with psychiatric hospitals, the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform is a historical process of reformulation of knowledge and mental health practices. In this way, the Centers of Support for Family Health (NASF) have been acting in the supply of matrix support in mental health. So, the present research aims to analyze the actions which the NASF is taking for the matrix support in mental health in the city of Natal/RN. This is a kind of research descriptive, exploratory and qualitative. The data collection, was made by a direct observation of the professional pratices and semi-structured interviews with health professionals NASF's. The Data were analyzed according to thematic analysis technique, with the support of the content analysis method, which is a way to investigate clusters of meanings which make up the communication of the investigated object. Three analytical categories were organized by this method, whose titles were inspired in two theories in the health field called “Health to Paidéia” and “Expanded Clinic”. The name of the categories are: 1. “Mental illness in brackets: working dimensions of the Centers of Support for Family Health interfaces with the concrete subject”, which is about the work process of NASF; 2. “Freedom and engagement in the arrangement of matrix support in mental health”, which explore the matrix support limitations in mental health in Natal/RN from the professionals interviewed at the NASF’s; 3. “Between the desire and interest: influence of expert orientation in mental health in Psychosocial Care Network” (RAPS), which is related to matrix support in mental health, as an organizational arrangement responsible to ensure intersectoral and comprehensive care, strategies inside of context of the constitution of RAPS. We can extract and say that the actions of NASF teams in the brazilian city called Natal/RN, still not part of a structured link with health care networks, as happens with the absence of discussions and lack of professionals in the matrix support. In addition, there is a difficulty to do an specialized orientation in mental health because of the lack of human resources in this area and of the insufficient number of the replacement services for psychiatric hospital pratices, bringing up the discussion about the consolidation and expansion of RAPS in fact investigated.