THE OCCUPATIONAL THERAPISTS PARTICIPATION IN THE PSYCHIATRIC REFORM AND IN THE NEW MENTAL HEALTH CARE

The Psychiatric Reform, which is under discussion in Brazil since the 80's, has involved mental health workers, service users, and families, who had been longing for a less stigmatizing practice with a view to social reintegration. Its issues covered the de-institutionalization and its consequent ramifications. A process of discussion was engaged and changes in the existing services were proposed as well as the creation of new equipments. At first, regulation n degrees 224/92 established the services in Basic Health Units, Health Centers, Ambulatories, Centers for Psychosocial Care and Psychiatric wards in general hospitals. In 2000, regulations n degrees 106 and 1.220 established the Residential and Therapeutic Living Centers. In this context, the objective is to present the psychiatric reform from the occupational therapists' point of view and to investigate what their publications revealed about the practices in the new services. The methodology adopted was to review the specialized literature in the occupational therapy field, by referring to the LILACS database. The criteria were: scientific articles published in national journals from 1997 to 2007, theses, dissertations and chapters of books written by occupational therapists, and classic specialized books. The papers found, addressed the importance of the psychiatric reform and describe the concepts of supporting social networks, everyday life, access to work and rights, autonomy and dignity. It was observed that all authors, occupational therapists, are from the state of Sao Paulo and teach at Occupational Therapy Programmes, except one. There are few works published, especially regarding professional practice.