Twenty years of the brazilian psychiatric reform: meanings for psychiatric and mental health nursing

Objective to develop arguments supporting Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing as a baseline force of qualified and indispensable work in the evolution of mental health care and policies. Method argumentation of a reflective nature, considering the path of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing over the twenty years of the legal framework of the Psychiatric Reform, as well as the publications pertinent to discussion of the topic in vogue. Results two topics emerged, namely: From Psychiatric Nursing to Mental Health Nursing: a change of paradigm; and Mental Health Nursing: a new praxis. Conclusion Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing presents itself as a resilient and sustainable practice despite the crises caused by institutionalizing policies implemented at the governmental level. The profession, increasingly politicized and attentive to the relevant guidelines of the Unified Health System, struggles and reinvents itself in its way of caring, in line with the reform guidelines, not subjected to stigmatizing regressions or outside the community territory.