Abstract

ORTIZ LOBO, Alberto. Against individual health prevention of mental distress. Rev. Asoc. Esp. Neuropsiq. [online]. 2019, vol.39, n.135, pp.177-191.  Epub Nov 11, 2019. ISSN 2340-2733.  https://dx.doi.org/10.4321/s0211-57352019000100010.

Health prevention of mental suffering, regardless of being done In primary, secondary or tertiary care, is not just professionals trying to prevent its happening in advance in a well-meant way, making an early diagnosis or reducing the negative consequences of mental problems. Behind preventive measures, there is a particular conceptualization of mental problems, a socio-politically contextualized practice, a therapeutic relationship very often conditioned by professional omnipotence that fosters a paternalistic dynamic, and interventions that, as it always happens in the health field, also cause damage. Against this perspective, quaternary care prevention gives us the scientific and ethical keys to limit the damage done by preventive health interventions in a context of medicalization and individualization of social problems. Likewise, mental health promotion, understood as an activity with a fundamentally political, collective and intersectoral nature in which mental health professionals are other knots within the network of community agents, provides us with a professional task outside the clinical practice and in a public health and social medicine framework, which helps improve mental well-being in the population.

Keywords : prevention; promotion; early intervention; mental health; quaternary prevention.

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