The diversity of conceptions, among social groups, about health and disease determines different expectations that will cause discrepancy between the needs and the priorities evaluated by professionals and users of the health services. The objective of this work is to review some articles that discuss health services professionals’ and users’ contents, beliefs and values about the mental disease. We conducted a literature search in indexes for scientific work, covering the period 2001 to 2008, including domestic work only. The similarities and the diversities among the social representations of the population who uses the mental health services and the professionals of that area were analyzed in the selected articles. The results showed similarities and diversities in the individuals’ conception related to: mental disease definition, its causes and cure, the psychologist and the search for psychological treatment. It was concluded that the differences in meaning among professionals and users justify the need of more studies about the topic so that the mental health practices meet more extended demands.
Representations; professionals; mental health
