A literature review about the process of building occupational therapy as a health science, mainly through its evolution in the field of mental health, discussing the status differences of its activities in classical Psychiatry and in the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform. The analysis shows the shifts in the concept of health and the working tools of Occupational Therapy seeking to abandon the Hospital-centric medicalized Psychiatric Paradigm aiming towards the Psychosocial Care Paradigm.
Occupational therapy; Brazilian psychiatric reform; Psychosocial care; Mental health