Resumen de La situación de la asistencia psiquiátrica y la salud mental en Chile

Pedro Retamal, Fernando Schürch R.

• We have reviewed some facts about the reality of psychiatric care in Chile. We found out the number of psychiatric beds available for 10€D in habitants it was in 1970 of 0.50 and in 1990 was 0.25 one of the lowest in Latino America. Moreover, the bed resource is gathered mainly in the Fifty and Metropolitan Región and there is no increase in a psychiatric wards in the general hospitals. It is possible that 19 per cent of the population develops mental illness, what would mean that2.5 millon people could be affected, this amount being over 3 million when pathological drinkersare included. In the group of ages ranking from 5 to 24 years old there has been an increase in intake of different subtances. We have estimated that the deficit in the psychiatric out patient’s care is over 6009c, in l9tXl there’s a number of 2114 hour daily of psychiatric assistance needed. The number of psychiatrists that are needed, according to the estimation, is quite similar to the number which is actually working, moreover in the past years the increase in psychiatrists tends to reach those demands. In Chile, we have chosen the care system type asyle, and it is necessary to replace it by a psychiatric of super technology. In order to improve the psychiatric care we have fortunately count on an ongoing increase in the number psychiatrists and psychologists.