Highlighting the social and economic context, the article examines the changes in psychiatric care in the state of Santa Catarina from 1971 through 1975. Guided by experts from the Pan American Health Organization, the state government devised a mental health policy that was based on U.S. experiences in preventive and community psychiatry under the Kennedy administration (1961-1963) and that was in tune with the guidelines laid out by Brazil's National Social Security Division (Divisão Nacional de Previdência Social). As a product of qualitative research based on interviews with professionals involved in the development of these initiatives in the 1970s, the article discusses the background to the 1980s and 1990s psychiatric reform in Brazil and reflects on the historical role of these initiatives in Santa Catarina.
Brazilian psychiatric reform; preventive psychiatry; mental health policy; Santa Catarina