Meeting about the Community Model and Psychiatric Reform

Local will and leadership, gender equality, creativity and permanent innovation

Santiago, Chile, 5-6 March, 2009. First meeting of the technical cooperation project between Peru, Argentina and Chile on “Promoting Mental Health in Primary Health Care Settings”. Mental health workers and other professionals from various disciplines attended the meeting, as well as healthcare teams and leaders of organizations of users and families. There were also participants from different organizations, including representatives from the PAHO offices, Dr Hugo Cohen, PAHO/WHO Subregional Advisor on Mental Health and authorities from the ministries of health of each country. 

The goals of the meeting were the interchange of experiences of community models in mental health and of transformation of psychiatric hospitals in the three countries, as well as the empowerment of key actors to promote this transformation. One of the results hoped for is the development of at least one pilot project of the community model and psychiatric reform per country.