Mental Health professional education: reflections based on the conceptions of Subject, Collective and Institution

The Brazilian psychiatric Reform requires the construction of new ways of caring for users undergoing intense psychic suffering. This perspective summons Health workers and managers to constantly question their practices and propose new ways of addressing current transformations, at the risk of territorial services openly repeating the exclusion of its users. The present article is based on an intervention study with 168 participants and discusses the importance of three legs that should compose the educational process of Mental Health workers and managers: the Subject, the Collective, and the Institution. This perspective can contribute to underpin mental health practices and strengthen the Brazilian National Health System (SUS), while also enhancing the quality of clinical practice and institutional reading by agents of care.