Mental health on the waters: conceptions of a team of a River Primary Health Care Unit (UBSF)

Abstract

This article presents the results of a survey carried out with the team of a Basic River Health Unit (UBSF) that operates in the state of Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon. The objective of the research was to understand and analyze the mental health issues identified in the riverside population based on the conceptions of workers at a Basic River Health Unit and to understand how mental health care is provided by these professionals to this population. This is qualitative research with an exploratory-descriptive nature, with data collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic content analysis. The following categories were created: mental health issues of the riverside population identified by the UBSF team and the team's performance in mental health care for the riverside population. It was identified that the teams offer listening and reception to the population's psychological suffering and that investment in Permanent Health Education with a focus on mental health is necessary, to qualify care and overcome the predominance of a model based on prescriptive, medicalizing and technicalist behaviors that, in turn, corroborate the strengthening of the biomedical model and asylum logic, based on the pathologization and medicalization of life.   Keywords: Mental Health; Primary Health Care; Sociocultural Territory.