Stigma and Social Exclusion Beteween People Living with Mental Health Disorders

The literature on mental health places as a central issue the problem of social reintegration faced by people with significant mental disorders. Although there are important social reintegration programs in the Brazilian public health system, significant records of exclusion and stigma of these people are a recurring fact. In many cases, for those sheltered at home, home confinement (voluntary or not) is frequently reported, with a significant reduction in social ties and a lack of active participation in the daily sociability of the community. Another important cause of this phenomenon is the stigma that marks people, causing avoidance and consequent social death, characterized by the number of social ties established between these people and the community in which they are inserted, well below the normal. One of the main obstacles to full social inclusion lies in the fact that there are no actions that can minimize the effects of stigma. Public policies for mental health have an important ingredient, health promotion, but they are not implemented. In fact, in researchs we conducted, there is no record of educational practices in the community or in territorially anchored institutions, such as schools, associations, and community centers. This means that old mentalities (such as those that say that people with mental disorders are dangerous, that living with these people can be detrimental to children's education, that crazy people cannot be controlled, among others) are not questioned, which certainly reinforces the stigma. Thus, deinstitutionalization (long-term internment), social inclusion actions such as the Back Home Program (which provides remuneration for families that take in people with mental disorders), or therapeutic residences (living spaces for people with mental disorders who do not have family ties that can take them in) are not accompanied by social reintegration practices.