Mental health in urban territory: approaches to public policies in Macapá/AP

Abstract

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According to the World Health Organisation's World Report on Mental Health (WHO, 2022), almost one billion people in the world live with a diagnosable mental disorder and most of these people do not have adequate access to health services. In turn, mental health systems and services remain ill-equipped to meet people's needs, while mental health is considered a basic human right. In Brazil, in order to minimise the damage caused by mental disorders in these populations, public mental health policies have been created and implemented in the most varied territories of the country, such as in the city of Macapá in the state of Amapá, the subject of this research. The main objective of this study is to understand how public mental health policies are being developed in the city of Macapá, given the increase in demand for mental health services in the capital of Amapá in the second decade of the 21st century. To achieve this goal, the methodology used was an ecological epidemiological study with a territorial base, which analysed the characteristics of Macapa's urban territory, as well as the public mental health policies developed in recent decades. The results include: accelerated population growth not accompanied by adequate urban infrastructure; a lack of data on the mental health condition of this population; an increase in suicide death rates in the last decade; and public mental health policies being implemented with some positive advances, but still showing some weaknesses or absences.