This article investigates the Psychiatric Reform's qualitative aspect at São Paulo countryside by analyzing the discourses in the Mental Health field. This work is based on the Psycho-Social Attention referential as a theoretical, practical and ethical framework for the paradigmatic transformation on Mental Health. With respect to the methodology, we applied semi-directed interviews to CAPS coordinators and municipal Mental Health coordinators, and also performed participative observations, which were analyzed through the dialectical method of discourse analysis. It was observed three main theoretical discourses' streams (Traditional Psychiatry, Community-Preventive Psychiatry and Psycho-Social Attention) coexisting at the institution. Community-Preventive Psychiatry has been well established, but although it is overcoming some technical and theoretical constraints of Traditional Psychiatry, it is also imposing some difficulties to the ethical advances of Psycho-Social Attention.
psychiatric reform; paradigm; mental health; public policy