POTENCIALIDADES DE UM CURSO EM SAÚDE MENTAL: A LÓGICA PSICOSSOCIAL EM UMA EXPERIÊNCIA ATIVA DE ENSINO

This paper presents and discusses the experience of a scientific course about Mental Health at Public Health School, University of Sao Paulo. The participants were health professionals who work in different parts of Brazil. The course aimed to contextualize the current situation of public mental health, to present the psychosocial care network and to discuss outcomes and challenges of practices in this field. The active learning method was adopted for the planning and development of the course. Besides the theoretical part, the course promoted guided visits at different mental health services and this strategy was considered by participants as a powerful learning tool. The classes also provided moments of sharing and discussion of different experiences of professionals, allowing reflection about achievements and difficulties of each territory. This course clearly showed the importance of providing daily work discussion opportunities in order to promote the leading role of mental health professionals. Keywords: education; mental health; public health.