Economic, Social and Cultural Impact of PROPSAM
Excellence in its social and regional context
The Postgraduate Program in Psychiatry and Mental Health at UFRJ (PROPSAM/UFRJ) was the first postgraduate course in Psychiatry in Brazil, which was created and recognized by CAPES in 1972. The first master ‘s and doctorate courses in Psychiatry in Brazil attracted professionals from different regions of the country, giving IPUB the nickname “Mecca of national psychiatry.” Since its inception, the postgraduate program in psychiatry and mental health at the Institute of Psychiatry at UFRJ has never stopped receiving students from outside the State of Rio de Janeiro as a training center for teachers and researchers throughout Brazil. Many of them came to IPUB to pursue medical residency or specialization and continued their training at our institution until they completed their doctorates, then returned to their states of origin and continued their careers in university teaching institutions, becoming graduates of new professionals in our field. Our program has also been a breeding ground for the elaboration, implementation, and evaluation of the national mental health policy, common to the specific line of research for Social Psychiatry, Treatment Modalities and Assistance Policies, that in the last twenty-five years have been dedicated to studying the transformations that have occurred in the mental health care system in our country and in the world. Similarly, several research laboratories have an important interface for the training of professionals and assistance to people with the respective mental disorders they deal with. They are the Center for Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Mental Disorders in Old Age, Study Program and Assistance for Misuse Drugs, Bipolar Disorder Laboratory, Panic Laboratory, Obsessions-Compulsions Laboratory, Obesity and Eating Disorders Group, treatment-resistant depression outpatient clinic, and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Laboratory. All these laboratories have an open door to welcome people through the Unified Health System, which needs reception and treatment in their fields of expertise, bringing an immense social contribution to psychiatric and mental health care in our city.
Alignment with development agencies
Our program has a great tradition of competing for and being included in specific funding calls from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisado Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) and the CNPq. There is an incentive for teachers to compete in open notices, and we have several teachers who are CNPq productivity scholarship holders and who are scientists in our state from FAPERJ.
Knowledge and economic and social development in the health sector
PROPSAM has been one of its main results in the training of qualified professionals in academic activities and the job market. The social impact of PROPSAM can be measured by the action of our graduates in assistance, participation, direction, advice on councils, committees, and missions in NGOs, government sectors, scientific societies, consultancies, and advisories that do not generate reports, including bodies that promote research, extension, improvement, and specialization courses aimed at the professional development of the general public; action or intervention programs with different institutions and communities with specific needs; organization of scientific dissemination events aimed at the technical and general public; attention actions basic education or health care; interaction with other programs without cooperation projects between institutions for the qualification of higher education professionals, and insertion in national and/or international research networks.
Economic impact
- Monetary economic impacts
Positive economic impacts that benefit users from one or more communities, even though they do not involve a direct and visible flow of money, generate monetary savings for them. Free courses, such as the Study Center, medical care, and hospitalization, are some examples.
1.1. Center for Studies in Psychiatry and Mental Health
The Study Center events are held in person and virtually in real time, with the possibility of accessing the content presented in knowledge bases, ensuring the breadth of content dissemination. This is a monetary economic impact because of the free services it offers.
1.2. Laboratories and Research Units
Several Laboratories/Research Units in the most varied areas of knowledge in Psychiatry and Mental Health carry out studies, scientific research, and develop knowledge. Most of them provide care to people who seek these centers and receive free treatment, which has a monetary economic impact for the benefited people who do not need to pay for these services.
- Non-monetary economic impacts
Non-monetary economic impacts are indirect; they do not involve financial resources or the possibility of measuring them precisely, but they occur indirectly in the economy of those who benefit from the results they provide.
2.2. Academic production
Propsam’s relationship with its graduates is permanent, consistent, and stimulated, maintaining the esprit de corps of Psychiatry and Mental Health professionals trained by the program, frequently sharing knowledge, and raising the level of these professionals. They align themselves with the functioning of IPUB and Propsam, including holding specific meetings that promote exchange based on reports of their experiences and production outside the educational institution that trained them.