Description
Workshop: Interdisciplinary approaches to global mental healthPresentation: Structure-based mental health approaches in Chile in the 1960s and 1970s
The growth of identity struggles and intersectional and multicultural debates
has presented challenges for public health services in Chile. In this context, re-
searchers, stakeholders, health practitioners, and activists have recently brought
contemporary debates on professionals’ competency to the fore. Debate in
Chile has primarily centered on US-based discussions on cultural and structural
competency. However, emerging concerns regarding identity, intersectionality,
and mental health among vulnerable or marginalized groups –specially af-
ro-descendant migrants– have confronted local health traditions with the need
for specific interpretations of concepts such as ‘culture’ and ‘structure’. In this
presentation, I delve into the recent history of psychiatry and public health in
Chile to reveal how ideologies and politics have influenced local traditions in
mental health practice and their interaction with ongoing identity struggles and
intersectional and multicultural debates. I argue that Chilean structural-based
approach to mental health emerged during the reformist administrations of Edu-
ardo Frei Montalva (1964–1970) and Salvador Allende (1970-1973). While
the social and health policies developed by these governments aimed to incor-
porate cultural and ethnic dimensions –specifically addressing the ‘Indigenous
question’ or ‘Mapuche question’ within the framework of land reform– these
policies tended to perceive Otherness primarily through the lens of social class
(e.g., porverty and socio-economic inequalities). To illustrate this, I highlight
cases such as Martin Cordero’s community efforts to rehabilitate psychiatric
patients in Temuco, Luis Weinstein’s salud poblacional (population health) with
the general population in impoverished sectors of Santiago, and Juan Mar-
coni’s intracommunity program on alcoholism, neurosis andsensory deprivation
in southern Santiago. Through this cases, I will emphasize that professional
competencies require consideration of broader sociopolitical processes and a
contextualized understanding of the categories ‘culture’ and ‘structure
| Period | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Event type | Workshop |
| Location | Montreal, Canada, Quebec |
| Degree of Recognition | International |