PROMOTION AND PREVENTION IN MENTAL HEALTH: WELL-FOUNDED HOPE, FUTILE ILLUSION OR PSYCHOPATHOLOGIZING CONTRABAND?

Mental health promotion and prevention are increasingly recognized as essential strategies. It has been shown that promotional and preventive programs in this area can be effective. It is expected that spreading these programs may help to decrease the gap between the assistance needs in mental health and the resources available. Besides describing this background, this article analyzes some of the main challenges necessary to achieve the desired development in this area. It is hypothesized that, if this development is carried out based on the logic of the medical model, it may contribute to creating inappropriate answers and, paradoxically, to increasing the need for resources in mental health. We analyze the risk involved in the massive and recurrent use of mental disorder screening based on a medicalizing conception. Finally, we propose that developing promotion and prevention in mental health is a great and necessary challenge, but it must take into consideration the warnings arising from what is known as quaternary prevention.