Practices and Therapeutic Strategies of the Psychosocial Care Centers Alcohol and Drugs

Abstract Changes in drug policy have expanded community mental health services, such as the Psychosocial Care Centers Alcohol and Drugs and, consequently, the therapeutic practices and strategies of psychosocial care. This study aimed to describe the therapeutic practices and strategies of these services, based on documents and perceptions of practitioners, in the light of the psychosocial model. For this, a mixed method study was carried out in three services (two in the Federal District and one in Sao Paulo), data were collected in 48 government documents, 1,157 medical records, interviews with 23 practitioners, and in three focal groups that were treated using descriptive statistics and content analysis. 58 therapeutic practices and strategies were identified in government documents. In services, there is a predominance of individualized practices and few extramural activities, of social and intersectoral insertion, mainly due to problems of institutional infrastructure. The psychosocial care model has not been fully applied by the services due to several situational factors discussed in this study.