Mental distress and challenges in the right to health

Abstract

Ten years after the effective date of Brazilian Law n. 10.216/2001, which provides for the protection and rights of those affected by mental disorders and the reformulation of the mental health assistance paradigm, health advancements in Brazil are undeniable. Many substitutive services and new devices in health were created, which refl ected the principles of psychiatric reform and propelled new ways to treat insanity, accomplishing old claims from the Anti-Asylum Fight Movement. A medium for voicing pain and contradictions in an attempt to safeguard the citizenship of a signifi cant segment of society, this movement claimed State action in this fi eld, demanding that human rights for individuals suffering from mental disorders be universally protected, indivisibly and interdependently. This protection implies both the acknowledgement of mental disorder individuals as subjects of rights and the understanding of the right to enjoy all rights, not only the right to health. This article debates the potential and limits of Law in the fi eld of mental health. This discussion stems from the acknowledgement that mental disorders affect each person uniquely, setting differences among individuals. The circumstances of this specifi city, whether it be by nature of diagnostic or by contextualizing the process of suffering in an area that reverberates on emotions as well as on family, social and community ties, demand much more than the acknowledgement of these individuals as subjects of rights: they demand effective public-policy advancements in the areas of mental health and family support under the perspective of human rights principles.