A 50 años del inicio de la fonoaudiología en Chile: experiencias y desafíos actuales en salud pública

246 MENTAL HEALTH SPEECH THERAPY: EXPERIENCES IN OUTPATIENT AND COMMUNITY CARE Abstract The insertion and development of speech therapy in outpatient and community mental health contexts has been increasing in recent years in our country, with a growing hiring of professionals in different regions. The chapter presents a review of work experiences, challenges, barriers and learning during three years of speech therapy performance in community and outpatient mental health, to visualize the need to expand the traditional perspectives and paradigms taught in undergraduate careers. The activities described include individual and group interventions for users and community and coordination actions with intersectional teams, where interdisciplinary work is present. It is concluded that the exercise of speech therapy in this context allows broadening the perspective of how people’s health is conceived, generating knowledge and specific speech therapy knowledge within the framework of evidence-based practice. Keywords: communitarian mental health center, mental health, speech therapy.