SUICIDE PREVENTION POLICIES IN BRAZIL AND THEIR IMPACT ON SCHOOLS

Abstract

The article analyzes two high profile initiatives related to suicide prevention in Brazil, based on documents produced by their responsible and released by the media. It discusses the medicalization in suicide approach regarding the “Yellow September” campaign and the moralization that underpins the National Policy for the Prevention of Self-Harm and Suicide, related to the conservative concept of family. It notes that such initiatives are articulated as a result of the union of conservative forces in the country. Although they have fundamental contradictions in the way they understand suicide, they have in common the erasure of the social determinants of mental suffering. Finally, it discusses the risks of its implementation in the school context.