Las Redes Comunitarias y Familiares en el tránsito hacia la externación sustentable en el contexto de la reforma del Modelo de Atención de Salud Mental en Uruguay

This article takes as a main topic of discussion the place community and family networks take at the strategy of deinstitutionalization. The project is presented in the context of the Mental Healthcare System of the national integrated health system (SNIS) reform that has been taking place in Uruguay from the Law No. 19.529 of Mental Health (2017) to think about the practices regarding the Mental Healthcare Community Model. This implies giving visibility to the material conditions of existence in people’s daily lives, to individual and collective well-being, to work, housing, education, culture, leisure and enjoyment time, among others. The transition from an asylum model to a model that privileges the community approach, must fi rst consider a change in the public mental health policy that contemplates diff erent actors, including users, their relatives, health workers and the community in general. The reintegration into the social fabric of hospitalized people is central when it comes to thinking about a sustainable discharge, and that is why making social inclusion eff ective will imply changes in the sanitarian practices, in health resources, which allow family and community support, so that those in psychological suff ering can fi nd opportunities to develop their lives outside the psychiatric hospital, being respected in their rights