National Policy for the Health of Indigenous Peoples: Challenges for Psychosocial Care

Abstract

The National Policy for the Health Care of Indigenous Peoples (PNASPI) was created to ensure comprehensive, universal, and humanized access to health services for Indigenous peoples, taking into account their cultural, social, and territorial specificities. In this context, the present study aimed to analyze the main challenges faced by PNASPI in implementing Indigenous psychosocial care. This research is characterized as a bibliographic study with a qualitative and descriptive approach, based on the analysis of scientific articles, books, and official documents available on digital platforms such as Google Scholar, SciELO, and the Virtual Health Library. The results showed that psychosocial care for Indigenous peoples still faces significant obstacles, including difficulties in accessing specialized mental health services, a shortage of professionals trained in intercultural practices, language barriers, prejudice, high turnover among health teams, insufficient infrastructure, and the impacts caused by territorial conflicts. The study also highlighted the importance of recognizing traditional knowledge and Indigenous cultural practices in developing more humanized and effective mental health care. It is concluded that strengthening public policies, combined with valuing interculturality and increasing investments in Indigenous health, is essential to ensure psychosocial assistance that adequately meets the needs of Indigenous peoples.