Mental health from the margins: context, teams, and possible interventions

Abstract

This essay aims to articulate certain data regarding the global situation of mental health and the configurations of subjectivity in contemporary times. Transformations in the world of work, accelerated over the last decade, have placed a large part of the population outside the scope of policies traditionally considered as “social security.” The rise of “entrepreneurship” has pushed millions of workers into a new type of piecework labor. Depending on the moment and the country, this is further aggravated by job instability and unemployment. 

At the same time, the ultra-neoliberal discourse discredits public services and defunds public providers, jeopardizing access and preventing reparative measures and social rehabilitation. 

In this context, it becomes indispensable to rethink mental health devices, as well as their articulation and—even—the clinical parameters that may provide them with support. 

This essay seeks to present some proposals to confront these challenges, considering the violent history of colonization and inequalities in our Latin American region.