Remote matrix support in mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: experience report

• Autor(a) principal: Miliauskas, Claudia Reis
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Rocha, Camila, Salomão, Fabio, Ferraz, Helena, Fortes, Sandra
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Medicina de Família e Comunidade (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://www.rbmfc.org.br/rbmfc/article/view/3116
• topic: Saúde mental; Atenção primária em saúde; Consulta remota; Organização e administração.; Mental health; Primary health care; Remote consultation; Organization and administration.; Salud mental; Atención primaria de salud; Consulta remota; Organización y administración.

Problem: The demand for mental health in Primary Health Care (PHC) is high, and the training of healthcare teams to detect and treat these patients is essential. Matrix support, a collaborative healthcare model developed in the Brazilian context, is an important tool for the effectiveness of mental health care in PHC. In March 2020, with social distancing measures adopted due to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, healthcare services needed to be reorganized. The objective of this article is to describe an experience of remote matrix support and its reorganization in mental health at a PHC unit in the city of Rio de Janeiro during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The Heitor Beltrão Municipal Health Center is located in the North region of Rio de Janeiro. Before the pandemic, in the 2017-2019 period, matrix support took place through joint consultations, case discussions, and a group of psychotropic drugs. During the pandemic, the work was reorganized into two fronts: synchronous joint teleconsultations and the organization of a mental health users’ list for telemonitoring. Results: A total of 50 joint teleconsultations were carried out over 12 weeks, with an average of 4.16 consultations/week. The most frequent diagnoses were depressive and anxiety disorders, followed by personality and substance use disorders. These new actions allowed the maintenance of mental health users’ access to the service, inclusion of new cases, improvement of access for mental health users that are at risk for COVID-19 infection, and continuity of the training process in health with the acquisition of new skills and modernization of work. The main limitations were lack of available equipment and difficulty in access to the internet. Conclusions: This experience developed due to the COVID-19 pandemic describes the challenges and benefits of using remote matrix support and creating a list of mental health users. It may be able to help professionals and managers of other services to develop adaptations more suitable to local realities.