Towards Community - Reflections on Community Psychiatry, Culture and Alterity

Abstract

Introduction: The constant transformation of  communities  and  its relationship  with mental illness has been studied and debated for the past decades, although it is still not clear how it has been incorporated in clinical practice.

Aims: The authors propose to review the relevance to Psychiatry, especially Community Psychiatry, of understanding  communities as well as the methodologies and conceptual frameworks that allow that approach.

Methods: Selected and critical review of the literature about Community Psychiatry and Culture, Communities, and Social Inequity and Mental Health.

Results: The authors start by reviewing the meaning  of  Community and the  defining principles of Community Psychiatry in their relationships with  cultural  sensitivity.  This aspect is illustrated with two examples of the impact of culture and alterity in the understanding of Mental Health and Service Organization, one at the level of International and Global Mental Health, and the other at the local communities’ level. In this context, participatory action research is highlighted.

Conclusions: Psychiatry,  in  particular Community  Psychiatry,  by acknowledging a  wide  range  of  methodologies  and  being open  to transdisciplinary  models, is in a privileged position of electing communities as a field of investigation and integrate it in its praxis.