The anti-asylum law: a revolutionary mental health model

Abstract

Law 10.216/01 established a new model of mental health in Brazil, recognizing revolutionary rights for people with mental disorders, the current designation of the former mental illness. The so-called Anti-Asylum Law revoked security measures and extinguished the concept of criminal danger, because it is incompatible with the previous law and because it entirely regulated its subject matter. The edition of Res/CNJ 487/2023, instituted the new Anti-Asylum Policy of the Judiciary and ended the catatonic period of a law full of humanist wisdom: the right to comprehensive health in a non-asylum therapeutic environment, with the least invasive means and prohibition of compulsory isolation or inappropriate accommodation for people with mental disorders or psychosocial disabilities. The State’s responsibility for mental health policy is subject to three rules: psychiatric hospitalization presupposes insufficient extra-hospital resources, people with mental disorders cannot be admitted to nursing homes, and all psychiatric hospitalization depends on a detailed medical report, indicating the reasons for hospitalization. The basic rule of the system is outpatient treatment, through judicial dialogue with health teams for reassessment, reversion to free treatment or termination of treatment. The judicial decision of hospitalization guarantees the rights of the mental disorders but is conditioned by the multidisciplinary assessment of the competent biopsychosocial team.