ABSTRACT
As a product of the Psychiatric and Health Reforms, the Psychosocial Care Centers (Caps) emerged, as devices to think about the reinsertion of psychiatric patients in society in 2001. The insertion of the nutritionist in this context gained space, in line with their growing performance in the Unified Health System. This article aims to analyze the senses of the kitchen in three Caps in Rio de Janeiro, the training and the performance of nutritionists. We opted for the analytical testing modality, adopting the theoretical assumptions of amplified clinic as a starting point, which understand care as an experience of exchange between subjects and mutual accountability, and of the food-nutritional field as a complex problem. This way, the discussion was systematized in two moments: Among pans, tensions, knowledge and flavors: the kitchen as a therapeutic space; and Caps: challenges for professional qualification and performance of nutritionists. The analysis looks at the kitchen as a social space and discusses the continuity of nutritionists performance in mental health care shaped by the biomedical model, generating a decontextualized practice. In conclusion, the essay did not seek answers or true statements, but it did raise the perception of a problem that makes it possible to reflect on the practice of nutritionists in Caps, contributing to the consolidation of the proposals of the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform.
KEYWORDS
Mental health services; Collective feeding; Nutritionists