[Attitudes of neighbors about the treatment and community life of people with severe mental health disorders in Argentina]

A psychiatric reform is underway in Latin America and the Caribbean. Specifically in Argentina, a model of community mental health is being built, and prolonged psychiatric hospitalizations are still taking place, especially in neuropsychiatric hospitals. Therefore, it is necessary to closely monitor the psychiatric reform. One of the possible ways to monitor the reform is by analyzing society's attitudes towards prolonged psychiatric hospitalization as a mean of mental health treatment. Thus, an analytical observational study was conducted at the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, in 2021, to analyze the behavior of neighbors of people who had prolonged psychiatric hospitalizations and who received housing support. Questionnaires were applied to neighbors and non-neighbors, addressing the behaviors toward prolonged psychiatric hospitalization as a mean of treatment, social distance toward people who were hospitalized, as well as specific interviews with key informants from neighborhoods where people with severe mental health disorders and who receive housing support live. Based on the answers of neighbors and non-neighbors, no statistically significant differences were identified in behaviors toward prolonged psychiatric hospitalization as a mean of treatment, nor for social distance in relation to people who were hospitalized. Key informants conditioned their assessment of prolonged hospitalization and valued the role of support teams in making community life viable.