Interpersonal Counseling in Brazil: A Task Shift Experience

This chapter examines interpersonal counseling (IPC) in Brazil. The history of interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) in Brazil began in the mid-1990s with Professor Dr. Feijó de Mello, an expert on chronic depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), who applied IPT to both disorders. Since 2005, Dr. Mello has organized IPT supervision and training with other mental health professionals. The chapter then details how Brazil’s Family Health Strategy (FHS) has made remarkable progress toward universal coverage of its population in primary care in the last decades, but only limited investments in mental health. It considers the briefer and simpler version of IPT: IPC. IPC uses the same principles and techniques as IPT, but the language is simplified, and the format is considerably briefer (3–5 sessions), although the length can vary. The chapter looks at IPC training and evaluates the efficacy of IPC. Ultimately, the main limitations in implementing IPC were structural; Brazil’s health system is significantly underresourced.