Hospital das Clínicas creates 1st psychiatric outpatient clinic for victims of domestic violence

The Institute of Psychiatry at Hospital das Clínicas da USP (IPq) has just created the first mental health clinic aimed at victims of domestic violence, a problem that increased during the Covid-19 pandemic and reached almost 620,000 women in 2021, according to data from the last Brazilian Public Security Yearbook.

The program is being developed in partnership with the Um Novo Olhar Institute, which offers several free treatments to women victims of violence, such as facial reconstruction surgeries.

The initiative has funds of R$ 500 thousand in the first year, which will be used to hire doctors, psychologists and social workers. The funds were obtained through a parliamentary amendment proposed by federal deputy Maria Rosas (Republicans-SP).

The project has a duration of five years, forecast of another R$ 3.1 million, and the goal of assisting at least one thousand victims annually. The idea, however, is to seek other partnerships to make the clinic permanent.

According to surgeon and dermatologist Carla Góes, founder of the Um Novo Olhar Institute, the institution had already been working in offering other care to women mutilated by their partners, such as legal advice, social and psychological support, aesthetic treatments to reduce scars, in addition to surgeries. repairmen.

Currently, 92 women are being followed up, but psychiatric assistance was lacking. “Aggressions against women usually happen on the face. The partner wants to disfigure her face. This ends up with her, she develops depression, disorders in countless ways. She needs psychiatric follow-up.”

Góes says that one of the first victims that the institute treated, in 2018, was a woman who had been stabbed 17 times in the face by her ex-husband, against whom she already had a protective measure. “She only survived the femicide because she pretended to be dead and he ran away.”

The victim also had functional losses. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t eat. “It took about a year to rebuild her face. The most exciting thing was when she managed to crack a smile.”

Facial reconstruction was performed with a titanium prosthesis through a partnership between the institute and the Prevent Senior group. The hospital has also cared for, free of charge, women who have had their noses, lips and ears torn off.

Góes says that when he started referring the first cases to the IPq, he faced resistance from some victims who resisted psychiatric treatment.

“Today, a psychiatrist is still understood to be a doctor who is going to treat a person who is crazy. Our volunteers have been working hard to get victims to reach the IPq. We see the improvement, the evolution. women go back to taking care of themselves, taking care of their children”, she says.

According to her, in addition to the stigma barrier, many women do not have the financial means to even pay for public transport to the IPq. The Um Novo Olhar Institute has also offered help in this regard.

Telemarketer Victoria, 21, is one of those under psychiatric treatment. On April 21, 2021, she was sleeping at her parents’ house in São Mateus, east of São Paulo, when she woke up being hit by her ex-boyfriend. There were 15 stab wounds to the back, abdomen, arm and face. All on the left side of the body.

Hours earlier she had ended the six-month relationship after discovering a betrayal. According to the woman, her ex-boyfriend broke into her parents’ house and covered her mouth while stabbing her. The young woman was hospitalized for five days and, after discharge, went into depression.

She claims that she never left the house and did not sleep at night because she was afraid he would come back to kill her.

Victoria says that things started to change in September, when she went to the institute for the treatment of scars left by stab wounds. She claims if she feels like a new person and has rescued her self-esteem. The ex-boyfriend remains at large.

According to psychiatrist Wagner Gattaz, chairman of the IPq’s board of directors, in addition to assistance, the new clinic aims to measure the impact of psychiatric and psychological treatment. “It is not enough to believe that we are doing a good thing, the numbers have to show the effectiveness.”

For him, the function of a service linked to a university is also to create treatment models that can be replicated in other parts of Brazil and the world.

Góes, from the Um Novo Olhar Institute, argues that the topic of domestic violence should be included in the curriculum of new doctors. “These professionals need to learn how to deal with domestic violence. They need to know that certain statements end up re-victimizing these women. If they don’t create bonds, they drop out of treatment.”

According to Gattaz, the proposal is also to extend psychiatric care to other groups that are victims of domestic violence, such as children and the elderly.

For the psychiatrist, all victims of domestic violence are defenseless, but children and the elderly do not even have intellectual and cognitive strategies to deal with the situation. “The abused child thinks that this is her life, and the elderly person, who is forced to accept these situations.”