Brazil Mental Health & Wellbeing

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Opening Panellists

Maria Conceição do Rosário

Federal University of Sao Paulo

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Dr. Maria Conceição do Rosário is an Associate Professor at the Federal University of Sao Paulo (UNIFESP) and Adjunct Professor at the Yale Child Study Center. Her expertise is in child and developmental psychiatry, and she has conducted research on obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and tic disorders. She coordinates the Early Childhood Attention Program (PAPI) in Brazil, an interdisciplinary team of people dedicated to developing and implementing strategies for promoting early childhood development. More recently, she has worked with early childhood development and the impact evaluation of intervention programs developed for parents and teachers of pre-school children on the promotion of child’s integral development. Working with partners from the Mother-Child Education Foundation (AÇEV) and the Yale Child Study Center, she is focused on the implementation of parent and teacher support programs in Brazil. Dr. Rosário received her medical degree in Bahia, Brazil, her PhD in Science from the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil, and completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Child Study Center at Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.


Daiane Borges Machado

Harvard Medical School & Center for Data and Knowledge Integration for Health (CIDACS/FIOCRUZ)

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Daiane Borges Machado is a Research Associate at the Center for Data and Knowledge Integration for Health (CIDACS/FIOCRUZ) and a research fellow at Harvard Medical School. She is a psychologist with a PhD in Epidemiology and Population Health by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Since 2007 she has been investigating mental health-related outcomes and suicide. Her researches have contributed to the use of new strategies for evaluation of mental health and cash transfer programmes, showing that panel data and secondary data analyses can be powerful tools to evaluate the impact of policies and interventions in mental health at a lower cost. With a background in Psychology, Epidemiology and Population Health, moving forward, her interests aim at applying these learnings towards the development of innovative technologies, to address mental health care gaps, gender gaps and promote population health.


Breakout Session Panellists

Moderator: Luiz Roberto Bumbles De Abreu Carvalho

University of Sao Paulo

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Beto is currently a master’s degree student in Psychiatry at the University of Sao Paulo. Has a bachelor’s degree in business administration, a post-graduation in marketing and more than 17 years of experience in Big Pharma companies. Today he is a researcher, Venture Builder and Health Innovation Designer. His focus is to capitalize this interdisciplinary experience to foster the development of an Ecosystem to drive more collaboration and engagement between Academia, NGOs, Public and Private sectors on the implementation and dissemination of projects that promotes social impact, transformation thru digital inclusion and collaborative innovation focusing on Brain Health and Wellbeing.  


Lisiane Bizarro

Full Professor, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) & Director, The Brazilian Society of Psychology (SBP)

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Dr. Lisiane Bizarro is a Full Professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and a director of the Brazilian Society of Psychology (SBP). Her expertise is in experimental and translational psychology, and she researched how drugs and food modify the relationship with environmental stimuli and the interplay of genetic and environmental influences throughout development. She also develops workshops that promote mental health in the academic environment and participates in UFRGS Entrepreneurship and Innovation Hub. In SBP, she coordinates a workgroup on COVID19 and is SBP's representative at #MenteEmFoco and the Global Psychology Alliance. Dr Bizarro has a Psychology degree and MSc in Psychology at UFRGS (Brazil), a Ph.D. and a post-doctoral position at the Institute of Psychiatry King's College of London (UK), and was Visiting Professor at Douglas Research Center McGill University (Canada). 


Daniel Fatori

University of Sao Paulo Medical School

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Daniel Fatori is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sao Paulo Medical School. He is a psychologist dedicated to scientific research since the first year of undergraduate study. Over the years, he dedicated his time to study clinical epidemiology, clinical trials methods, and data analysis. He is currently dedicated to using digital technology in the context of psychiatry, early childhood development, and maternal mental health. He published more than 20 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals.


Giselle Felix

Professional Master in Teleheatlh and Telemedicine (UERJ – Brazil)

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Student at Professional Master in Teleheatlh and Telemedicine (UERJ – Brazil). Entrepreneur since 2007, working to promote a healthy lifestyle culture at workplace. In 2017, launched Healthfy – a startup that helps to scale up this process of behaviour change in corporative groups.


We will explore many perspectives including mental health, technology, culture, faith, law, policy, and more.

Brazil has recorded the world's second highest COVID-19 death toll, with more than half a million lives lost, and the country is now experiencing its biggest outbreak to date (1,2,3).

Researchers are trying to understand the possible socioeconomic and ethnic health inequities given the diverse population and fragile political and economic situation (4), and they are also trying to characterise the impact on mental health. One study reporting a “remarkably high prevalence of psychiatric symptoms” found that in their sample of approximately 2000 people from the Brazilian general population more than 75% self-reported moderate-to-severe anxiety symptoms, around two-thirds showed moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms, and one-third exhibited symptoms of post-traumatic stress (5). Among the determinants of mental health outcomes, female gender, younger age, lower educational level, low income and longer period of social distancing were strongly associated with anxiety, depression, and PTSD levels (5).

The Brazilian scientific community has responded to the pandemic in various ways (6). For example, an initiative led by students, professional and researchers from the University of Sao Paulo and other key educational institutions is being formed to build a network to address mental health issues, collaborate, promote, research and design a more responsible Digital Mental Health Innovation landscape in Brazil. Please join us in supporting future directions for mental health in Brazil.


I WANT TO THANK Luiz Roberto Bumbles de Abreu Carvalho FOR HELPING TO SHINE THE SPOTLIGHT ON BRAZIL.


Background Reading


COVID-19 and mental health in Brazil: Psychiatric symptoms in the general population

Authors: Jeferson Ferraz Goularte, Silvia Dubou Serafim, Rafael Colombo, Bridget Hogg, Marco Antonio Caldieraro, Adriane Ribeiro Rosa


Trends in method‐specific suicide in Brazil from 2000 to 2017

Authors: Keltie McDonald, Daiane Borges Machado, Luís F. S. Castro‐de‐Araujo, Lígia Kiss, Alexis Palfreyman, Maurício L. Barreto, Delanjathan Devakumar, Glyn Lewis

Published:Accepted: 10 March 2021, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology


Researchers face attacks from Bolsonaro regime

By: Herton Escobar. Published in Science 16 Apr 2021: Vol. 372, Issue 6539, pp. 225; DOI: 10.1126/science.372.6539.225


Direct from the COVID-19 crisis: research and innovation sparks in Brazil

By: Mário Fabrício Fleury Rosa et al. Health Research Policy and Systems volume 19, Article number: 10 (2021)


No end in sight for the Brazilian COVID-19 crisis

By: Talha Burki. The Lancet Microbe. Published:May, 2021DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-5247(21)00095-1



Brazilian Digital Health Strategy

http://bvsms.saude.gov.br/bvs/publicacoes/estrategia_saude_digital_Brasil.pdf

Entrepreneurship & Digital Solutions

https://saude.abril.com.br/tudo-sobre/saude-mental/

https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mercado/2021/04/medo-e-luto-aumentam-procura-por-startups-de-saude-mental.shtml

COVID-19 Impact on Mental Health

https://jornal.usp.br/ciencias/maior-estudo-epidemiologico-do-brasil-avalia-impacto-da-pandemia-na-saude-mental/

https://canaltech.com.br/comportamento/o-que-2020-nos-ensinou-sobre-saude-mental-e-como-usar-isso-em-2021-176689/

https://canaltech.com.br/comportamento/como-estara-nossa-saude-mental-quando-a-pandemia-tiver-acabado-170776/

https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/geral-56726583

Public Financing

https://blog.conexasaude.com.br/gastos-com-saude-mental/

https://www.correiobraziliense.com.br/brasil/2020/12/4894033-apos-polemica-governo-anuncia-investimento-de-rs-99-milhoes-em-saude-mental.html

Paula CS, Duarte CS, Bordin IA. Prevalence of mental health problems in children and adolescents from the outskirts of Sao Paulo City: treatment needs and service capacity evaluation. Rev Bras Psiquiatr, 2007;29(1):11-7.

https://www.saude.gov.br/noticias/agencia-saude/46193-saude-mental-investimento-cresce-200-em-2019

Private Health Coverage

http://www.ans.gov.br/planos-de-saude-e-operadoras/espaco-da-operadora/compromissos-e-interacoes-com-ans/programas-ans/promoprev-programa-de-promocao-da-saude-e-prevencao-de-riscos-e-doencas

http://www.ans.gov.br/images/Renata_Lopes_-_ANS.pdf

https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/saude/noticia/2020-03/numero-de-beneficiarios-de-planos-de-saude-fica-estavel-em-47-milhoes#:~:text=Cobertura%20do%20segmento%20est%C3%A1%20em%2024%2C25%25%20da%20popula%C3%A7%C3%A3o%20brasileira&text=O%20n%C3%BAmero%20de%20benefici%C3%A1rios%20de,de%202019%20eram%2047.008.430.

Mental Health Promotion Guide after COVID-19

http://biblioteca.cofen.gov.br/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Guia-de-saude-mental-pos-pandemia-no-Brasil.pdf

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