"Taking “social factors” into account in the mental health clinic: lessons from Brazil"
Dominique P. Béhague, PhD
Associate Professor | Director of Undergraduate Studies | Medicine, Health & Society
Vanderbilt University
Reader | Global Health and Social Medicine
King's College London
Objectives
The activity is designed to help the learner
- describe the characteristics that make mental health care in Brazil uniquely attuned to social factors
- discuss how social science approaches can usefully inform clinical practices and psychiatric research.
Summary
This talk reports on results from a mixed-methods anthropological and epidemiological birth cohort study in Southern Brazil on how mental health providers and patients seek to address the social determinants of mental health. It describes the limits of behavioral and competency approaches and demonstrates how socially sensitive therapy can support people’s desire to change the socio-economic, environmental, and political forces shaping mental health.
This talk is sponsored by the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. This educational activity received no commercial support.