Intersectionality of children and teenagers' vulnerabilities in mental health care

Objective/Context: This article aims to reflect on the intersectionality of vulnerabilities of children and adolescents in psychological distress for an effective undivided attention of children and teenagers' mental health, seeking support in Intervention Bioethics, in light of the principles for equity and social justice assurance. Methodology/Approach: This is an exploratory-descriptive and qualitative study of a non-systematic bibliographic and document review in scientific articles, laws and normative documents on the topic of vulnerabilities within the background of children and teenagers' mental health care, with an analytical debate on the categories of emancipation and independence of Intervention Bioethics. Results/Findings: It turned out that the intersection of gender, race, social inequalities, stigma, and prejudice issues related to madness, to the access barriers to health services and to the biomedical pattern of mental health care and social policies, become restrictions to provide integral attention to the mental wellbeing of child and juvenile mental health. These diverse vulnerabilities have ultimately accumulated and created systems of oppression and deprivation. Discussion/Outcomes: The intersectionality of several weaknesses of children and adolescents in psychological distress, analyzed by Intervention Bioethics, allows a better understanding of these aspects as a social phenomenon. It presents itself as a possibility of discussing these moral, social, and political conflicts, aiming at pointing out strategies that can strengthen the leading role of this population and their families, in addition to the responsibility to ensure access to the right to health.