Pupil Mariela, what do an Orphanage and a Hospital have in common?

Abstract

In Argentina, the National Mental Health Law (No. 26.657), from 2010, indicates that a specific budget is available to carry out particularly significant changes in the institutions where patients are admitted for mental health reasons. Voluntary or involuntary hospitalization in general hospitals is promoted throughout the country, while the closure of specialized mental health hospitals is anticipated. However, some demographic characteristics and the marked lack of accessibility to specialized resources throughout the country allow to locate a well-founded doubt to said proposal, even if the indicated resources were available and even more so, if it is intended to preserve the valuable rights that are in the spirit of the Law. Especially with regard to clinically involuntary hospitalizations outside the big cities. This article aims to illustrate and substantiate this position clinically -with the case of the girl Mariela-, in relation to mental health patients of all ages and to criticize this aspect of the Law, pointing out the risk for users of not creating increasingly complex public mental health systems accessible to the entire population of the country.