Tensioning in Mental Healthcare related to Psychoactive Substance use: difficulties reported by public health professionals

Abstract

Difficulties found by healthcare professionals working at Primary Health Care (PHC) with respect to Mental Healthcare issues regarding Psychoactive Substances (PS) were analyzed considering a tensioning which pervaded those issues. An exploratory qualitative study was performed in 11 municipalities of the west macroregion of Minas Gerais state. Semi-structured interviews and focal groups with 145 PHC professionals. Data was analyzed through content analysis. The most relevant difficulties were related to
health work organization and management, the stigma against users with demands related do the use of PS, the lack of reflections health practices which consider the user’s reality, the ‘medicine culture’ and a disjointed Psychosocial Attention Network. It is fundamental to develop policies and practices that allow workers and health structures to reflect more on the relationship between PS use and possibilities to cope with suffering, expressed in different ways by healthcare users.