Matrix Support in Mental Health in Primary Health Care: Creating Processes

The present study aimed to follow the process of matrix support in mental health in a primary healthcare team in the city of Porto Alegre to analyze and produce knowledge about this care device. The Brazilian Ministry of Health points out the support matrix as a strategy for changing the management and care in health, constituting a potent strategy to articulate mental health actions in primary care. In this research, the cartographic method was used with three rounds of conversation and follow-up of meetings between the supporting team and the family health team for eight months. We analyzed the materials recorded in the field diaries, meeting minutes, and reports of the case discussions. The matrix support proved to be an important strategy of intervention in the work process, built on the particularity of the meetings and the discontinuities of the process. During some periods, teams were more involved in the discussion and care management spaces, resonating with a doing-together through inter-consultations and visits in the intersectoral network. At other times, permeated by institutional weaknesses, this device was important to support the health workers. In this experience, matrix support made it possible to expand the perspective on and the activities of mental healthcare in primary care through the production of knowledge and practices in the act.