Social Service and Mental Health in Adolescence(s) Facing the Issue of Suicide

Abstract

This essay is based on a literature review and the authors' experience as researchers, managers and workers in mental health policy. The work addresses the challenges faced by Social Services regarding mental health in adolescence, particularly the issue of suicide. It warns of the medicalization of life as a neoliberal response to suffering and highlights contradictions between the defense and denial of the right to mental health for adolescents, since this segment has not been prioritized in the attention to the mental health crisis, as recommended by the Statute of the Child and Adolescent. It aimed to highlight the meager and late contribution of Social Services in the production of mental health care for children and adolescents, which does not endorse conservative and asylum-like discourses, but takes into account the social determinants of mental health with life under the aegis of capital.