On the same day, another piece of current news emerged: José Manuel Anes, 81 years old, founder of OSCOT and specialist in crime and terrorism, had been brutally stabbed at home by his own daughter, who would be arrested after publishing a series of messages on social media giving macabre details about the attempted murder, all signs of an acute episode of mental disturbance.
The three cases have the same common thread in the background – mental health problems, the (often) invisible pandemic of the 21st century that affects more and more people. It is, for all reasons, a topic worth discussing and fighting. This combat can be done in several ways. For example, through the courage revealed by João Vieira de Almeida or Horta Osóriotwo public figures who occupy positions of high responsibility and who made public the cases of exhaustion they experienced, thus helping to combat the stigma that persists about this disease. A stigma that, in fact, even exists within the medical profession itself: an example of this are medical boards, which, when evaluating psychological illnesses, look mainly at the opinion of the attending physician (normally the family doctor), devaluing what the psychologist has to say about the patient’s condition.
But this fight cannot be done without investment, without reinforcing the staff of psychologists in health units (there will be just over a thousand in the SNS, when, in 2023, around 28 thousand professionals were registered with the Order), in public schools and other State institutions. The path has to be to increase the supply to the population, which is why it is still amazing an observation made by Miguel Xaviernational coordinator of mental health policies, on October 10th: “In the State Budget [para 2026]which we had access to yesterday, doesn’t even include the word mental health. However, we are convinced that there is a government commitment and that mental health reform will continue without major problems”. The Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, also guarantees that the investment will continue and it is good that this is the case. Especially because the scale of the changes to labor legislation that the Government is preparing – which could, among other things, facilitate dismissals and cut parental rights – promises to increase the number of people at risk of suffering some type of psychological problem (a warning made by the OPP itself in a recent opinion). The promotion of mental health is a matter in which the Government cannot even hesitate.
Executive Editor of Diário de Notícias
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