Towards a community mental health care for people with schizophrenia in Colombia

Mental health care based on the community has shown to be effective and successful for the health care service to people with severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia, evidence that is less clear in the health care system in Colombia, where weaknesses are present, both for prevention and rehabilitation, although national guidelines give importance to the social context in relation to the disease. As a contribution to the discussion on providing care for people living with schizophrenia, a topic review was conducted with the aim of identifying experiences in community mental health care services, in relation to their relevance to these people at the national level. Articles were searched on Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) Medline with Full text, Science Direct and documents of the World Health Organization, Pan American Health Organization and the Colombian Ministry of Health and Social Protection. Few experiences in community care for people with schizophrenia in Colombia were found and given its importance to public health worldwide, a call for attention is made towards the construction and implementation of these models in the Colombian context.