Deinstitutionalization Unfolding: The Transition to Community Mental Health in Lima, Peru
Since 2016, Peru has been deinstitutionalizing mental healthcare for people with severe psychiatric disorders. The country is transitioning from a model based in asylums and psychiatric hospitals towards a Community Mental Health Model. The process of deinstitutionalization is recruiting and mobilizing a variety of individuals: psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, and neighbors. My project asks how deinstitutionalization affects the daily lives of residents in the hosting community of “Ciudad Norte” an impoverished district in the outskirts of Lima, where the reform started. My project will contribute to the theorization and conceptualizing of surveillance as care, and the resulting transformation of the boundaries between clinic and community.