Domingos Sávio: Homage to the manager, intellectual and activist of the Brazilian psychiatric reform

Abstract

“Domingos Sávio Alves, in public life was a giant! Great, as only those who are able to personify, in their body, and for a lifetime, the collective struggle of many. Stoic, he endured without weakening all the fragility of his body, because he knew how to nourish himself with the dream of a more just world and to strengthen himself in the daily struggle for the construction of a public and user-centered mental health policy and care. He was twice director of the Juliano Moreira Colony, an important scenario of the Psychiatric Reform. In the post-constitution period of 1988, he was coordinator of Mental Health of the Ministry of Health, in the first period of Brazilian re-democratization, after having been arrested during the dictatorship. In this position, which he held from 1991 to 1996, he produced the Directive ministerial n. 224/1992, first institutional milestone for Brazilian Psychiatric Reform, which created the prototype of the CAPS [psychossocial care centers], and the project that was the basis for the future  program De Volta para Casa. He followed, after that, generously – one of his most remarkable characteristics – guiding, welcoming, along with his companions in the fight for an inclusive Mental Health policy, of which he was an eternal militant. He was one of those rare men who are greatly missed by many, but even greater examples, our consolation.” (by Erotildes Leal)

TES republishes this interview granted at a critical moment for mental health (2016) and valuable in any time, in which Domingos addresses the complexity of policies in the area, the need to confront regressive movements and reinforces one of his personal traits, announces possibilities and paths, for management, for training and for social movements.