Area of Concentration: Mental Health in Institutional Contexts
Health is considered in contemporary times as the result of an inseparable biopsychosocial process. Thus, talking about mental health purely and simply, detached from other aspects, is meaningless. When approaching mental health, the aspects surrounding it must be considered, considering the interdependence and interdetermination of biological, psychological and social factors. Social factors are organized, and act on the individual, from institutions such as the family, schools, organizations in which the individual works, social support organizations such as ONGs (Organizações não Governamentais) (Non-Governmental Organizations), care and health care institutions such as UBS (Unidade Básica de Saúde) ( Basic Health Unit), CAPS (Centro de Atenção Psicossocial), hospitals and CR (Centros de Referência), among others. Understanding "Institution" as a construct that encompasses precepts, values, rules, actions and actions, such institutions can interfere positively or negatively in the health-disease process of individuals throughout their life cycle. Knowing and acting on the aspects of negative interference, redirecting them to the development of positive interference and guaranteeing mental health to the population is a possible and viable task and in this performance the activities of this professional master's program are concentrated.
Lines of Research
Line 1: Mental health and the different institutional contexts of child and adolescent development
Based on the biopsychosocial concept of health, it must be seen as an integral part of the human being in interaction with their environment. With a focus on mental health, without disregarding the biological and social aspects, it is known that aspects such as the constitution of the central nervous system and temperament, the family and its educational processes, interaction in the school context and, finally, the interaction that takes place between the different institutions with the community and society inserted in a cultural historical context, can configure social conditions of vulnerability and interfere in the processes of psychological development, opening up space for the establishment of long-term mental health compromises in the individual's life. Through studies based on qualitative, quantitative, interventional and mixed methodologies, this line of research aims to analyze institutional variables in the context of the family, social nucleus and school in interaction with individual variables relating to the maturation and functionality of the neuropsychological system, in order to generate actions aimed at the healthy development of human beings. This line of work therefore focuses on the promotion, prevention and treatment of mental health throughout psychological development, with its ultimate focus on children and adolescents. Its products include methodologies, procedures, protocols, educational and intervention tools, among others.