Abstract
This study analyzed the meanings of mental problems in childhood, according to a group of professionals from two family health units (USF), highlighting who looks at these problems, what they look at and how they look at them. Ethnographic research was carried out, focusing on interviews with a semi-structured script with eight professionals from the two USF, seeking to reveal the "native models" about these problems. The mental problems in childhood were identified by professionals, parents, neighbors, teachers, highlighting the adults' views. Agitation, aggressiveness, problems at school or at home, were complaints that classified a "normal" or "abnormal" child. They resorted to specialized professionals, other institutions, and health services for children’s treatment. For the interviewees, mental problems in childhood are linked to family issues, mainly as a cause of these problems. The complexity of these problems, involving socio-cultural aspects, highlights the importance of the construction of practices based on interdisciplinary knowledge, as incorporated in child mental health policies and that has contributed to the strengthening and suppression of existing gaps in the assistance to children, seeking to encompass the complexity of their suffering experiences, associated with life situations marked by vulnerability and social precariousness, recognising children as subjects of these policies.
Keywords:
Mental health; Child; Family Health Strategy; Interdisciplinarity; Qualitative research