With the articulation of the 1821 Foundationthe alumni organization of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), The city government and the Faculty of Psychology of that university signed an agreement to launch a teaching hospital with a double objective: that the institution’s graduates can carry out their supervised professional practices and that the Buenos Aires health system adds mental health services.
The building, located on 1067 Hidalgo Street, in the Caballito neighborhood, is already being remodeled. They hope to finish it by next December and inaugurate it before the end of the year. According to estimates, will allow 100,000 annual benefits.
The historic headquarters of the General Directorate of Health and Social Assistance of the UBAwhere students used to take the health exam, a mandatory procedure in any career. In 2022 it was transferred by the rectorate to the Faculty of Psychology and, in 2024, the Board of Directors approved the creation of this hospital that has now obtained financing.
The city government, through the Ministry of Human Development and Habitat, is in charge of adapting the property for its operation as a hospital. The renovation and enhancement work, which covers a total intervention of 1,360 square meters, It was awarded through public bidding for $2,912,678,038.
Meanwhile, the Faculty of Psychology of the UBA will make available the building structure, its academic, professional and scientific capitaland health benefits for Buenos Aires residents.
Within the framework of the agreement, it will provide specialized assistance to people derived from City programs, with special focus on populations in situations of social vulnerability. They hope, then, that the public mental health network is thus strengthened from the articulation with a reference academic institution.
“The agreement is for ten years or until payment is completed in accordance with the benefits granted. Each consultation will have a value that is specified in a nomenclature within the framework of the agreement,” he specified. Paula Quattrocchi, professor at the Faculty of Psychology and secretary of Institutional Relations, Culture and Communication of the UBA.
The care in the 28 offices planned on the three floors of the building will be outpatient. and, if referrals are required, they will be made to the city’s hospital network.
As they explained, the faculty will charge a minimum fee for servicesin a scheme similar to that of the Faculty of Dentistry. The exception will be patients referred by the Citywhose treatments are deducted from the financing agreed between both parties, according to that nomenclature, while the agreement is in force.
The future teaching hospital – which THE NATION could go through – will be oriented towards supervised undergraduate and postgraduate professional practices, integrating different specialties and promoting clinical research. Will provide care in mental and occupational health, with psychological evaluation, psychodiagnosis and treatment services for different age groupsin a learning environment linked to current demands.
From the faculty they highlight that the project It will benefit both students and the populationby improving access to care and strengthening professional training.
For its part, the Foundation 1821, non-profit organization of UBA alumni dedicated to promoting and financing projects for the university, will collaborate with the creation of a mental health data laboratory. It will allow clinical information to be systematized and statistics validated to build public policy based on evidence. It will be financed through crowdfunding.
“We aspire for it to become a reference center in Latin America“, he pointed out Sergio Kaufmanthe president of the foundation launched last year, who highlighted the importance of a solution that articulates “the State, the university and civil society” to respond to one of the main health demands of the city, with a model that will integrate academic training, clinical care and applied research in the same space.
The initiative of the faculty to fully operate its teaching hospital coincides with a broader strategy of the Buenos Aires government, according to the Minister of Human Development and Habitat, Gabriel Mraida, to expand its public policies on mental health, in a context marked by the sustained increase in psychological distress.
Three out of ten people from 18 to 75 years old who live in the city of Buenos Aires perceive having some degree of psychological discomfort, more in women than in men, with symptoms of anxiety and depression. The data comes from a survey of the ministry and the Argentine Social Debt Observatory of the Argentine Catholic University (UCA), which measured for the first time the perception of health status specifically in the district’s population. It was presented in October of last year.
“This is a problem that is increasing and that appears in the meeting with the neighbors. It is a point that the city government is attacking on several fronts, for example, with measures regarding gambling addiction or the opening of link houses. The last space we opened is no longer enough. For us it is very important to expand the response capacity,” Mraida told LA NACION.
“It will have a double role: on the one hand, meet an existing demand, and at the same time, generate own evidence”, he detailed.
a month ago, The Buenos Aires government had already announced that it will finance the medical care of Buenos Aires residents at the Hospital de Clínicasthe teaching hospital of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the UBA. Although it is a different agreement, Both initiatives show a search to enhance joint work between the City and the country’s main public university..
In addition to the Clinics, The UBA already has five other university health centers: the “Angel H. Roffo” Institute of Oncology, the “Alfredo Lanari” Institute of Medical Research, the “Prof. Dr. Raúl Vaccarezza” Institute of Pneumonology, the University Dental Hospital and the School Hospital of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. The future hospital dependent on Psychology will join them.
Regarding the offer of institutions specialized in mental health in the Buenos Aires health systemtoday it is made up of the José T. Borda Hospital (for men), the Braulio Moyano Hospital (for women), the Dra. Carolina Tobar García Children’s and Youth Hospital (for children and adolescents) and the Torcuato de Alvear Psychiatric Emergency Hospital, along with psychiatric and psychological guards in acute care hospitals. In it 0800-333-1665 The free telephone service works.
In addition, for two years the City has implemented a Buenos Aires protocol for the care of homeless people with mental health problems, one of the most vulnerable segments of the population. At the time of presenting it, the government reported that six out of every ten adults, children or adolescents who wander on public roads have some mental health condition.
