Report of a training experience at the Adolescent Health Unit of the State University of Rio de Janeiro (NESA)

Abstract

This paper is the result of a three-month training experience provided by the Mental Health Sector of the Center for Studies on Adolescent Health (NESA) at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). The experience was conducted by a psychology resident at the M. Larrain de Berisso Hospital in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the benefit of her professional training. NESA was chosen for its specific focus on adolescent health at three levels of care, with an interdisciplinary and comprehensive approach, with psychoanalysis as the guiding principle of the mental health sector. The objective of this paper is to report the particularity of this experience in the context of Brazilian health; to explain the possibility of psychoanalysis “in extension”, that is, in other settings and in dialogue with other disciplines; and to share it with the purpose of contributing to the multiplication of experiences of this type. NESA is currently a reference in care, teaching, research and professional training, which constitutes an exception in the reality of Brazilian health.