The Mental Health and Addictions Law Possibilities of its implementation in a medium complexity hospital of the Province of Santa Fe

Abstract

This article aims to make visible the intersection between what is stated by the Mental Health and Addictions National Law (2010) and the particular situations of clinical practices, investigating the possibilities and difficulties to implement the guidelines established in the national and provincial regulations in a medium complexity hospital located in the province of Santa Fe, in the period between 2015–2016. The study aimedto describe and understand the working ways of mental health professionals, the interventions and practices carried out in the chosen institution. It involved different actors, who allowed to give visibility to the heterogeneity of perspectives on the implementation of current regulations in the processes of care for mental health problems. Different methods of data preparation and analysis were implemented. The data analysis showed a process of progress and changes regarding the inclusion and accommodation in the hospitalizations of mental health patients conditions in the general hospital, but also the emergence of tensions as a result of the persistence of certain exclusionary and madhouse logics.