ABSTRACT
On January 25, 2019, the Córrego do Feijão dam of Vale SA, in the city of Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, broke down reaching the company’s administrative area and the surrounding rural area, leaving bodies, productive and subsistence capacity, memories and trajectories under the sludge of ore tailings. The rupture of the dam triggered the direct death of 249 people and left 137 people homeless. This article aimed to report the experience of implementing the strategy of Mental Health and Psychosocial Care in the Unified Health System (SUS), considering the three federated entities, as well as the actors that composed the strategy from the first hours after the disaster until the end of the first six months. There were many challenges for the SUS to adapt to the new situation, particularly due to the combination of the following factors: intense suffering and the extent of the socio-affective losses experienced; scarcity of jobs and financial resources; environmental consequences still poorly measured; and demand for the resignification of an identity of the resident community. Articulated work between the SUS and the different sectors, such as education and social assistance, proved to be important and primordial, indicating that it is necessary to continue these points on the SUS agenda.
KEYWORDS
Disasters; Mental health; Psychosocial support systems; Public health