This article is an offshoot of my doctoral thesis defended at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. It seeks to approach the historical dissociation between mental health and broader public health as well as practices that work towards the integration of the two. It examines the scientific background that fosters this dissociation and also national and international health-related documents that stress the need for integration. Based on Rose, I analyzed the documents and interviews with health professionals on the practices of Matricial Support and Interconsultation formulated by the Ministry of Health and by the Porto Alegre/ Rio Grande do Sul Municipal Health Department, which seek to relate mental health with Primary Healthcare. These documents and health practices propose new subjectivations to the professionals. They emphasize the interdisciplinarity and the non-hierarchization of services and knowledge, and are in line with the form of contemporary social organization, which suggests taking horizontal and democratic decisions, rather than decisions imposed by a vertical authority typical of the patriarchal and biomedical model.
Mental health; Public health; Primary healthcare; Matricial support; Interconsultation