The Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti, affirmed that The Federal Mental Health Strategy announced by President Alberto Fernández: “it is how we think about public policies, the challenge is to accompany each of the provinces based on the progress of their situation in relation to mental health.”
Within the framework of the meeting of national and provincial health authorities in the Federal Council for Mental Health and Addictions (COFESAMA), the minister indicated that “the country is wide, diverse, with different situations in the provincesand we know that the goal we have is ambitious, but we want take the Laura Bonaparte as a reference national hospital, generate networks and agreements with the provinces to make a diagnosis of the situation and define the provincial plans”.
Before the referents of all the jurisdictions, the minister highlighted: “We have the budget, we have the political decision, and what we must do now is move from theory to practice and for that we need the provinces, the health teams and society”, and added that “there are more coincidences than disagreements, and we have to focus on those coincidences to begin to transform the mental health of Argentina”.
After the initiative launched yesterday by the President to guarantee care and attention to mental health, among Today and tomorrow, two conferences will be held with leaders from all over the country and experts from PAHO to begin its implementation.
Also participating in the meeting members of the Honorary Consultative Council on Mental Health and Addictions and the National Review Body, and experts from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
What does the project propose?
The Federal Mental Health Strategy Its objective is to guarantee the care and attention of mental health in all stages of life, for this purpose it proposes to increase the training of human resources in the area, provide devices for the externalization and labor insertion of people, and increase the investment in the area that will go from 3,700 million pesos to 7,700 million.
During her speech, the minister returned to the main lines of the strategy such as the incorporation of 12 interdisciplinary residencies in mental health; the implementation in national hospitals of the Bonaparte Hospital model specializing in mental health and problematic consumption; the creation of the Diploma in Community Mental Health and a nationwide territorial operation for the promotion, prevention and care of community mental health; the increase in the number of effectors that will receive the Remedy Mental Health kits; and the transfer of funds to the jurisdictions within the framework of the Sumar program to address this problem.
The presentations of the day began with the presentation of the director of Mental Health and Substance Use of WHO, Devora Kestel, who assured that “investing in mental health improves public health, well-being, human rights and social and economic development ”.
The main axes of the two days are the strengthening primary mental health care and community services; the analysis of priorities, opportunities, barriers and challenges; and the suicide prevention policies.
The Cofesama meeting takes place after the presentation made yesterday by President Alberto Fernández of the National Mental Health Strategy, which includes various actions to help the “full recovery of psychosocial well-being” after the pandemic.
The investment in mental health will go from 3,700 million pesos to 7,700 million, “which represents a 107% increase in relation to the current budget, to enhance the actions already developed and promote new ones,” it was officially reported.
