The first workshop for the preparation of Guatemala's National Strategic Plan for Mental Health was held on November 3. It was organized by the Mental Health Program of the Ministry of Health and PAHO/WHO Country Office, who convened key professionals in the area. The workshop was attended by representatives of the Ministry's Mental Health and Epidemiology programs, of the Mental Health Hospital's decentralization committee as well as by psychiatrists and psychologists of the same hospital, the Guatemalan Association of Psychiatry, the NGO "Alas Pro Salud Mental, and some relevant universities.
Five documents were presented at the workshop: PAHO's Mental health action plan 2013-2020, the previously developed draft Strategic Plan, the Decentralization Plan, and the Ministry's Suicide and Mental Health Surveillance protocols. Subsequently, participants worked in groups following the proposed strategic lines, aligned with the regional action plan. The shared result allowed to obtain the basic information necessary to advance in the process. Guatemala needs a major change in the management of mental health services, with a much more decentralized and community-based approach.
Dr. Carmen Martínez, PAHO/WHO Subregional Advisor for Central America and the Caribbean, traveled to Guatemala to accompany the plan's development process and visited the Mental Health Hospital and the NGO Esperanza de Vida´s "Casa Hogar" project, in Zacapa, where 31 patients from that hospital have been referred to. She was accompanied by Dr. Dévora Kestel, Chief of PAHO/WHO Mental Health and Substance Use Unit in Washington D.C.
