Skip to main content
. 2008 Sep 5;2:12. doi: 10.1186/1752-4458-2-12

Table 1.

The total number of workers in mental health facilities and private practices per 100,000 inhabitants, Brazil, 2005.

Worker Number Rate per 100,000 inhabitants
1. Psychiatrists1 6003 3.26
2. Other medical doctors, not specialized in psychiatry2 1065 0.58
3. Nurses 3119 1.69
4. Psychologists3 18763 10.19
5. Social workers4 1985 1.08
6. Occupational therapists5 3589 1.95
TOTAL 34524 18.74

Source: CNES, 2005.

1 Psychiatrists in private or public health services; professionals that work only in private practices were not included. Source: tabwin-CNES, December 2005.

2 The total number of clinicians and nurses working in mental health is not available, but at least 1065 other medical doctors (not specialized in psychiatry) and 3119 nurses are registered in mental health services. In all the services where there are other areas of health care, such as in general hospitals or outpatient services, it is not possible to identify how many doctors or nurses, besides the mental health team, also work with mental health care.

3 Psychologists in private or public health services. Source: tabwin-CNES, December 2005. The number of psychologists in health services does not include those working in private offices. The Federal Psychology Board had records of 125,397 registered psychologists in the country in 2005; 41% of them worked in private practices (full time or part time); 11% worked in companies; and 10% worked in schools (IBOPE, 2004).

4 There are 14,338 social workers in health services. We do not have the number of social workers working exclusively with mental health, but 949 work in psychiatric hospitals and in CAPS, and 1036 work in other outpatient mental health services (source CNES – TABWIN, Dec 2005).

5 Occupational therapists in private or public health services; therapists working only in private practices were not included. Source: tabwin-CNES, December 2005.

No estimates are available of the number of other health or mental health workers (including assistants, non-doctor/non-physician primary health care workers, health assistants, medical assistants, professional and paraprofessional psychosocial counselors).