Arely Gomez Maldonado
Research Mentor(s): Julio Villa-Palomino
Mentor Department: Anthropology
Authors:
Session: Session 4 (1:00pm – 1:50pm)
Presentation Type: Poster 1
Abstract
This study aims to examine the responses to mental health crises and emergencies in Lima, Peru. Interviews were conducted in Metropolitan Lima and Callao with people with mental health problems and their families about their latest mental health crises or emergencies that they had experienced between 2019 and 2022. In total, semi-structured interviews were conducted via Zoom with 33 key informants, which included: People who suffered a mental health crisis or emergency and went to various health services, relatives of those people, experts from the Dirección de Salud Mental (DSAME) del Ministerio de Salud, health personnel from a psychiatric hospital, health personnel from two general hospitals, health personnel from three community mental health centers, and Lima’s first responders. This study analyzes the initial family responses to the crises or emergencies, the intervention by first responders, the barriers of access to care, psychiatric hospital, general hospital, and community mental health center care, coercive, violent or deceptive practices in mental health emergency care, as well as the interviewees’ perceptions of the level of implementation of the Ley de Salud Mental. The goal is to take the information found and provide recommendations to improve the responses.
