Psychiatric Rehabilitation Workshops "are extremely valuable for patients with severe disorders who need to integrate socially." This was said by the Auditor General of the City of Buenos Aires (AGCBA, for its acronym in Spanish) to the dependent areas of the Ministry of Health to function as outpatient care centers.

The main objective of these places is to "prevent hospitalizations and encourage community integration." Their headquarters located in 2215 Suarez, and there are four peripheral centers in Flores, Once and the Moyano Hospital.

204 people work in the workshops "of which 35 are professionals" and they work from Monday to Friday from 7.30am to 12.30pm, for two years with the possibility of extending it to three "at the discretion of the treating team."

One of the most important points that the report adopted in December 2014, is that jobs "are in line with the new paradigms of mental health because they provide an interdisciplinary approach and continuous and personalized monitoring."

In fact, "this is reflected in the high rate of evolution of the medical records analyzed."

The work of the Buenos Aires Audit notes that "the staffs, both professional and not professional, are part of the permanent staff so they both have experience in the institution and a wide knowledge in the field of mental health."

It also notes that "although it has an informal organizational structure it achieves a stable operation, has well established routes, methods of evaluation and adequate records" elements that larger and more formal programs often fail to have.

Among the weaknesses, the work of the AGCBA exposes "the need to increase the number of patients in the workshops."

The maintenance shop, for example, "has a capacity of 51 people, but there only work 28."

In the Laboratory, where drugs are produced for the network of tuberculosis care, "not one patient participated."

In 2665 Brandsen "there is one blacksmith, carpentry and plumbing and has four patients although there could work more than 12."
In part, the report argues that "the lack of a subnet workshops impact negatively on the referral system and support from various ambulatory devices available to the City."

However, there are some isolated initiatives such as the carpentry workshop of the headquarters of Flores in which "it is working towards admitting patients from the neighborhood or nearby areas in which the professional staff visits hospitals and health centers that are close by.”

As an example of achievement in this integration mechanism between workshops and hospitals, there is also the case that was presented at the World Congress of Mental Health in 2013: a young man with severe mental disorder which was derived from the Borda Hospital "was a great psychosocial process recovery from learning different trades and activity training, especially intextile where its progress was reflected from the human to the social spectrum with the community.”

The workshops in Numbers

In 2012 the workshops were attended by 265 people. 87% were from Argentina while 13% were from Latin America, with the exception of an Iraqi.

Over 75% of the population is between 31 and 50 years and over 80% are men.

70% have a place to live and not the remaining 30%. 73% do not have any income or pension.

Regarding diagnostics, 84% has schizophrenia and psychosis.

Patients using the method of ambulatory mental assistance account for 68%, while 32% is admitted. The latter "are not in that situation because their mental health requires it but because they are patients of high social vulnerability." Of these, according to the sample analyzed in the AGCBA, 13 people are in the Borda Hospital and 7 in the Moyano.

The most important number is that 64% of patients who attended the workshops achieved a social employment integration.