Abstract

SOUZA, Miriam Candida  and  AFONSO, Maria Lúcia Miranda. Knowledge and practices of nurses in mental health: challenges in face of the Psychiatric Reform. Gerais, Rev. Interinst. Psicol. [online]. 2015, vol.8, n.2, pp. 332-347. ISSN 1983-8220.

Brazilian Psychiatric Reform guided the restructuring of the health care model, allowing for the creation of alternative services in mental health. Considering the importance of nursing professionals in the implementation of such a policy, a research on the knowledge and practices of nurses in the mental health area was developed. The subjects were nurses working in two centers of mental healthcare, in two cities of Minas Gerais. The research was conducted through semi-structured interviews and systematic observation and data were subjected to content analysis. The nurses understand the proposals of the psychiatric reform, but reported difficulties to concretize them, such as the lack of inter-agency coordination of health services and the lack, in their educational training, of knowledge and skills specifically required for the professional performance in the substitutive mental health services. However, they still require more knowledge in the area of psychopathology and do not point out the need for further knowledge and practices appropriated to Psychiatric Reform. The article recommends strengthening nursing training at the undergraduate level as well as in training at work, in order to prepare the professionals to meet the challenges of the substitutive services of the mental health policy.

Keywords : Mental health policy; Training in Psychiatric Nursing; Psychiatric Reform.

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