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The professional association that brings together psychiatrists in the country issued a statement this Monday in which rejects the terms in which political leaders use mental health problems or specialized hospitals where the population is served to refer to opponents or criticize measureswithout thinking, above all, about the effect that those words may have on patients, family members and professionals.
The position of the Argentine Association of Psychiatrists (AAP), an entity that has long rejected this type of public demonstration, emerged after, last week, the statements of a senator who listed in a session the limitations that a “mentally ill person” has to work – in that case was to hold a public office – and of a former presidential candidate who resorted to the comparison with “a Borda room” when talking about the leadership of the Executive Branch.
“With concern, we continue to hear that political leaders refer to others as suffering from mental health problems or, also, to institutions that are dedicated to assisting people who suffer from mental illnesses, such as the José T. Borda Hospital,” points out the AAP statement signed by its president, Ricardo Corral, professor at the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires.
The text, which recalls that precisely because of their high prevalence, mental illnesses “are the main cause of disability, pain and suffering not only in Argentina, but throughout the world,” states that “the people who suffer from them and their families are are even more stigmatized with this type of manifestations by recognized personalities that are used as insults and attacks or fallacies ad hominem and that gain public status with wide dissemination in the written media, radio, television and, even, social networks.”
The AAP also extends the burden of this “stigma and discrimination” to the institutions and professionals who assist both patients and their families, who cannot always access the services they need in a timely manner due to the lack of updated information. public policies and regulations aimed at mental health response throughout the country.
“We call this – they propose – double stigma; that is, towards people who suffer from mental illnesses and the institutions and professionals who are responsible for treating, assisting and accompanying them. The AAP has been warning about this situation for a long time, which is why it carries out education and awareness activities for society.”
In fact, two years ago, the entity supported, with four other professional associations in the region, the publication of a guide to eradicate the most common myths about mental health problems and improve information about how people with depression, dementia, bipolar disorder, developmental disorders, schizophrenia and other psychoses. The work was led by two members of the AAP: Corral, who is also head of Teaching and Research at the Borda Hospital, and Peter Gargolofffounder and advisor of the Association to Help Relatives of People Suffering from Schizophrenia of La Plata (AAFE) and professor of the master’s degree in biomedical research at the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the National University of La Plata.
The writing of words matterthat can be consulted here, It began during the Covid pandemic, when health services were focused on the health emergency. When little by little he began to return to attending to the other problems, the consultations in the wards for symptoms or psychiatric emergencies they grew by 20-30%, according to what was published THE NATION with estimates at that time.
According to the guide, for example, talking about being mentally ill – as Senator Cristina López (Unión por la Patria-Tierra del Fuego) did in last Wednesday’s session in Congress –, deranged, crazy or insane is “disqualifying.” and pejorative” towards a person with mental health problems and the same applies when classifying an individual by a diagnosis: for example, schizophrenic, bipolar or psychotic.
In her speech, the senator ended up associating mental illness in general terms with the political inability of an official to hold public office. The guidelines consider it “incorrect” to associate mental disorders with intellectual disability “because they do not suppose nor do they have to be associated with a disability.”
At the same time, it is discouraged to “consider that people with mental illnesses are incapacitated, that mental disorders are incurable and that they prevent a full life.” because specialists affirm that “with adequate treatment, in addition to a favorable social and family environment, they can overcome the partial and temporary limitations of the mental disorder they suffer from to work, maintain adequate social relationships, live with their family and take care of their children, among other activities”.
For his part, the leader Juan Graboisformer candidate for president in the Unión por la Patria internal elections, also compared the President’s Office last week to “a Borda pavilion”, a comparison that the AAP rejected in regards to that hospital specialized in mental health and the patients. that are discussed there.
“We know that ignorance is the basis of prejudice and this leads to stigma and subsequently discrimination, for that reason we raise our voice and call on society as a whole to be adequately informed and exercise responsibility in the word with the objective to improve our coexistence and make a better society,” concludes the AAP statement.
In dialogue with THE NATIONCorral reviewed that this use in policy of terms associated with mental health to disqualify others continues to be recurrent and considered that this ends up affecting patients and health personnel more than the actual recipients of these manifestations.
“The health system is totally in crisis, with a shortage of professionals, and some suffering burnout, the increase in demand and the impact of the economic crisis on the population, which is what makes it even more important than it always had. If, in addition, in this context of greater demand for mental health problems, the people who need care and those who are treated in specialized institutions are stigmatized, that does nothing else from the policy perspective than increase the access problems of that population – he expressed The psychiatrist-. Specialized hospitals, like Borda, are there to treat and help people who are, precisely, the most vulnerable in society.”
Corral insisted, as in the statement, that mental health problems are, of all diseases, the most prevalent in the world, not only in Argentina. “We talk so much in the country about public health, but there is a need to improve the logistical, economic and human resources resources in the institutions, especially with regard to mental health, which still remains unresolved in order to meet the needs of the population. -he claimed-. “Politicians have the issue on their agenda: everyone talks about mental health, but there is no action.”
