Mental Health Promotion Experiences in Latin American Countries: What Kind of Promotion is it?

Abstract

Mental health is a priority for public health, which allows considering subjective and related aspects involved in the comprehensive health process. There is an increasing emphasis on the promotion of mental health, consistent with a positive conceptualization of mental health that is not reduced to the absence of mental illness. The exercise of power in favor of the transformation of life is considered a condition of possibility for the promotion of health, and the analysis of this relationship is a priority. Objective: This research explores the notions of mental health promotion that underlie different experiences carried out in Latin American countries and contributes to the recognition of what is developed in the context of these countries in the name of the promotion of mental health. Likewise, it allows us to recognize if the issue of power is addressed in these experiences. Method: A systematic exploratory review of empirical articles that reported specific experiences for mental health promotion, published since 2010 in Latin American countries, was carried out. Results: The reviewed research works are divided into those that equate health promotion with disease prevention, and those that make their own conceptualization of promotion; in the first case, individual intervention is privileged and in the second, the social and community spheres are included. In both cases, there is no explicit development of the dimension of power involved in health promotion.