The Promise of Peace of Mind and “ Convivencia Social” : Psycho-Politics in Times of COVID-19 in Colombia

Abstract

COVID-19 highlighted the significance of mental health worldwide, with warnings of a “tsunami” of psychological issues across virtually all parts of the globe. This situation intensified longstanding debates in transcultural psychiatry regarding the sociocultural dimensions of mental health. This article examines narratives of social anxiety and psychological distress that emerged during the pandemic in Colombia and explores how they interacted with local mental health discourses and political processes. The analysis draws on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between October 2022 and March 2023, including semi-structured interviews with public health managers in four municipalities and representatives of the Ministry of Health. A qualitative data analysis framework for applied policy research and a retrospective document analysis was used to contextualize local mental health policies and their conceptual foundations. The findings trace the development of local mental health policies and situate them within the peace-building context. Public responses to COVID-19 in the four municipalities revealed a marked increase in mental health initiatives and the prominence of mental health discourses on political agendas at both local and national levels. While narratives of isolation, fear, and bereavement echoed global concerns, their framing within Colombia's peace-building project gave them distinctive meanings and trajectories. The recalibration of existing infrastructures—such as helplines and community-based programmes—illustrates how global crises intersect with long-standing national agendas, underscoring that mental health policies are embedded in cultural and political projects.

Keywords

COVID-19 mental health policy psycho-politics violence prevention community-based mental health Colombia

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alarcón Garavito

G. A.

Burgess

Dedios Sanguinetti

M. C.

Peters

L. E. R.

Vera San Juan

(2023). Mental health services implementation in Colombia:A systematic review. PLOS Global Public Health, 3(12), Article e0001565. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0001565

Álvarez-Rodríguez

A. A.

(2022). El Paro Nacional en Colombia 2021: explosión social entre dinámicas estructurales y de coyuntura. Relevancia de la acción política y del diálogo en su desarrollo y transformación. Prospectiva, 1(33), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.25100/prts.v0i33.11864

Antić

(2021). Transcultural psychiatry: Cultural difference, universalism and social psychiatry in the age of decolonisation. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 45(3), 359–384. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-021-09719-4

Ardila-Gómez

Díaz

A. V.

Vargas

Trujillo

M. A. A.

Ortega

E. J. C.

Agrest

(2021). COVID-19 and global mental health. The Lancet Psychiatry, 8(6), 457–458. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(21)00150-4

Arias

(2008). Una mirada atrás: procesos de paz y dispositivos de negociación del gobierno colombiano. Serie Working Papers FIP, 4, 1–48. Available at: https://ideaspaz.org/publicaciones/investigaciones-analisis/2008-10/una-mirada-atras-procesos-de-paz-y-dispositivos-de-negociacion-con-el-gobierno-colombiano

Borda

O. F.

(1991). La accidentada marcha hacia la democracia participativa. Análisis Político, 14, 46–59. https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/anpol/article/view/74677

Borrero-Ramírez

Torres-Tovar

Echeverry-López

M. E.

(2021). Building the social health movement in Colombia, 1998–2020. Cadernos de Saude Publica, 37(12), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1590/0102-311X00345220

Bowen

G. A.

(2009). Document analysis as a qualitative research method. Qualitative Research Journal, 9(2), 27–40. https://doi.org/10.3316/QRJ0902027

Briceño-león

Camardiel

Avilla

(2001). Violencia, sociedad y justicia en América Latina. CLACSO.

10.

Brooks

S. K.

Webster

R. K.

Smith

L. E.

Woodland

Wessely

Greenberg

Rubin

G. J.

(2020). Rapid review: The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. The Lancet, 395(10227), 912–920. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30460-8

11.

Casas

Á.

Congote

(2017). Psiquiatria y cambio social en Colombia durante el Frente Nacional. In Huertas

(Ed.), Políticas de salud mental y cambio social en América Latina (1st ed, pp. 118–153). Catarata.

12.

Castro

P. A.

Bustos

J. P.

Rueda-Guevara

(2022). Estrategias de fortalecimiento de la seguridad y soberanía alimentaria en medio del covid-19 en Colombia. Biomédica, 42(Sp. 1), 26–32. https://doi.org/10.7705/biomedica.6041

13.

Commission for Studies on Violence. (1987). Colombia: Violence and democracy. Universidad Nacional de Colombia - COLCIENCIA.

14.

Dodge

K. A.

Bates

J. E.

Pettit

G. S.

(1990). Mechanisms in the cycle of violence. Science, 250(4988), 1678–1683. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.2270481

15.

Duque

Klevens

Ungar

Lee

(2005). Violence prevention programming in Colombia: Challenges in project design and fidelity. In M. Ungar (Ed.), Handbook for working with children and youth: Pathways to resilience across cultures and contexts. (pp. 455–472). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412976312.n28

16.

Duque

L. F.

Montoya

N. E.

Restrepo

(2013). Aggressors and resilient youths in Medellin, Colombia: the need for a paradigm shift in order to overcome violence. Cad Saude Publica, 29(11), 2208–2016. https://doi.org/10.1590/0102-311x00178212

17.

Duque

L. F.

Orduz

J. F.

Sandoval

Caicedo

B. E.

Klevens

(2007). Lecciones del programa de prevención temprana de la violencia, Medellín, Colombia. Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública, 21(1), 21–29. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1020-49892007000100003

18.

Echeverry-López

M. E.

Borrero-Ramírez

Y. E.

(2015). Protestas sociales por la salud en Colombia: La lucha por el derecho fundamental a la salud, 1994-2010. Cadernos de Saude Publica, 31(2), 354–364. https://doi.org/10.1590/0102-311X00030714

19.

Else

(2020). How a torrent of COVID science changed research publishing — in seven charts. Nature, 588(7839), 553–553. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03564-y

20.

Escobar

J. H.

(2005). La prevención temprana de la violencia: una revisión de programas y modalidades de intervención. Universitas Psychologica, 4(2), 161–177.

21.

Fernando

Mills

(2014). Globalising mental health or pathologising the Global South? Mapping the ethics, theory and practice of Global Mental Health. Disability and the Global South, 1(2), 188–202.

22.

Foucault

(2008). O Nascimento da Biopolítica. Martins Fontes.

23.

Franco

(1999). El Quinto: no Matar – Contextos explicativos de la violencia en Colombia. TM Editores.

24.

Gaviria

Echeverry

Escobar

Rojas

(2020). Coronavirus: Diez especulaciones dobre el futuro. Editorial Planeta Colombiana.

25.

Gilson

(2014). Qualitative research synthesis for health policy analysis: What does it entail and what does it offer?. Health Policy and Planning, 29(3), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czu121

26.

Gonzalez-Diaz

J. M.

Cano

J. F.

Cano

J. F.

Pereira-Sanchez

(2020). Psychosocial impact of COVID-19-related quarantine: Reflections after the first case of suicide in Colombia. Cadernos de Saude Publica, 36(6), 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1590/0102-311X00117420

27.

Gonzalez-Diaz

J. M.

Córdoba

Zamora

D. C.

(2021). Mental health in Colombia: Amid a global virus, tear gases and rifle shots. The Lancet Regional Health - Americas, 3(100050), 100050. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2021.100050

28.

González-Diaz

J. M.

Ortiz

I. D. G.

Armenta

A. F. O.

Rincón

G. F.

Saavedra

M. P.

(2022). Hacia la puesta en práctica de un modelo integral de atención en Salud Mental en Colombia: avances, retos, oportunidades y propuestas. Revista Latinoamericana de Psiquiatría, 21(3), 23–37.

29.

Guzman

Borda

O. F.

Luna

E. U.

(2019). La violencia en Colombia: Estudio de un proceso social (2nd ed.). Ediciones LAVP.

30.

Han

B.-C.

(2017). Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and new technologies of power. (Erik Butler, Trans.). Verso.

31.

Herazo

(2014). La salud mental ante la fragmentación de la salud en Colombia: entre el posicionamiento en la agenda pública y la recomposición del concepto de salud. Revista de La Facultad Nacional de Salud Pública, 32(Suppl. 1), S21–S27. https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.rfnsp.19806

32.

Herazo

(2022). Análisis sociopolítico de las políticas nacionales de salud mental en Colombia 1998–2019 [PhD]. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Repositorio UNAL.

33.

Hernández-Holguín

D. M.

(2020). Conceptual perspectives in mental health and their implications in the context of achieving peace in Colombia. Ciencia e Saude Coletiva, 25(3), 929–942. https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-81232020253.01322018

34.

Hernández-Holguín

D. M.

López

B. E. A.

Martínez-Hernáez

(2023). Salud mental colectiva: una revisión del concepto en la literatura académica de Brasil, Colombia y España. Saúde e Sociedade, 32(3), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0104-12902023210693es

35.

Hernández Holguín

D. M.

Sanmartín Rueda

C. F.

(2018). La paradoja de la salud mental en Colombia: entre los derechos humanos, la primacía de lo administrativo y el estigma. Gerencia y Políticas de Salud, 17(35), 3–14. https://doi.org/10.11144/Javeriana.rgps17-35.psmc

36.

Hobsbawm

(1986). Colombia asesina. Revista Universidad Nacional, 2(10), Originally published at New York Review of Book, november 1986. Available at: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1986/11/20/murderous-colombia/

37.

Jaramillo-Marín

(2011). Las comisiones de estudio sobre la violencia en Colombia: tramas narrativas y ofertas de sentido temporal para comprender la violencia [PhD]. Falcultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales. FLACSO México.

38.

Jaramillo-Marín

(2012). El libro La Violencia en Colombia (1962 – 1964). Radiografía emblemática de una época tristemente célebre. Revista Colombiana de Sociología, 35(2), 35–54.

39.

Kirmayer

L. J.

(2006). Beyond the “new cross-cultural psychiatry”: Cultural biology, discursive psychology and the ironies of globalization. Transcultural Psychiatry, 43(1), 126–144. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461506061761

40.

Kitanaka

(2011). Depression in Japan: Psychiatric Cures for a Society in Distress. Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt7rrv0

41.

Klevens

Montoya

E. M.

(2003). Un Abordaje de la Violencia desde la Salud Pública: el Proyecto de Prevención Temprana en Medellín. Rev. Salud Pública, 5(1), 24–39.

42.

Kohrt

B. A.

Mendenhall

(2016). Global Mental Health: Anthropological Perspectives (1st edition). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315428055

43.

Kola

Kohrt

B. A.

Hanlon

Naslund

J. A.

Sikander

Balaji

Benjet

Cheung

E. Y. L.

Eaton

Gonsalves

Hailemariam

Luitel

N. P.

Machado

D. B.

Misganaw

Omigbodun

Roberts

Salisbury

T. T.

Shidhaye

Sunkel

Patel

(2021). COVID-19 mental health impact and responses in low-income and middle-income countries: reimagining global mental health. The Lancet Psychiatry, 8(6), 535–550. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(21)00025-0

44.

Laurens

Abadía-Barrero

Hernández

(2023). Latin American social medicine in Colombia: Violence, neoliberalism, and Buen Vivir. Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, 28(2), 93–105. https://doi.org/10.1111/jlca.12657

45.

Mari

Oquendo

M. A.

(2020). Mental health consequences of COVID-19: the next global pandemic. Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, 42(3), 219–220. https://doi.org/10.1590/2237-6089-2020-0081

46.

Mesa Vieira

Franco

O. H.

Gómez Restrepo

Abel

(2020). COVID-19: The forgotten priorities of the pandemic. Maturitas, 136(January), 38–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2020.04.004

47.

Minayo

M. C. de S.

Souza

E. R. de.

(1999). É possível prevenir a violência? Reflexões a partir do campo da saúde pública. Ciência and Saúde Coletiva, 4(1), 7–23. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1413-81231999000100002

48.

Minayo

M. C. d. S.

(2007). The inclusion of violence in the health agenda: Historical trajectory. Ciencia & Saude Coletiva, 11, 1259–1267. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-81232006000500015

49.

Minayo

M. C. S.

(2006). Violência e saúde (1st edition). Editora FIOCRUZ.

50.

Napier

A. D.

Ancarno

Butler

Calabrese

Chater

Chatterjee

Guesnet

Horne

Jacyna

Jadhav

Macdonald

Neuendorf

Parkhurst

Reynolds

Scambler

Shamdasani

Smith

S. Z.

Stougaard-Nielsen

Thomson

Woolf

(2014). Culture and health. The Lancet, 384(9954), 1607–1639. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61603-2

51.

Parales Quenza

C. J.

Urrego Mendoza

Z. C.

Herazo Acevedo

(2018). La insoportable levedad de la política nacional de salud mental para Colombia: reflexiones a propósito de la propuesta de ajuste en 2014. Gerencia y Políticas de Salud, 17(34), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.11144/javeriana.rgps17-34.ilpn

52.

Patton

M. Q.

(2002). Qualitative research & evaluation methods (3rd ed.). Sage.

53.

Pearce

(1992). Colombia: Inside the labyrinth. Altamir Ediciones.

54.

Pfefferbaum

North

C. S.

(2020). Mental health and the Covid-19 pandemic. The New England Journal of Medicine, 383(6), 510–512. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp2008017

55.

PREAL. (2007). Prevension Temprana de la Agression: Herramientas para la prevención de la violencia en las escuelas. Editorial San Marino.

56.

Pupavac

(2001). Therapeutic governance: Psycho-social intervention and trauma risk management. Disasters, 25(4), 358–372. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7717.00184

57.

Radfar

Ferreira

M. M.

Sosa

J. P.

Filip

(2021). Emergent crisis of COVID-19 pandemic: Mental health challenges and opportunities. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12(July), Article 631008. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.631008

58.

Restrepo

L. C.

(1994). El derecho a la ternura. Arango Editores.

59.

Restrepo-Espinoza

M. H.

(2012). Salud mental y Desplazamiento forzado. Editorial Universidad del Rosario.

60.

Ritchie

Spencer

(1994). Qualitative data analysis for applied policy research. In Burgess

R. G.

Bryman

(Eds.), Analyzing qualitative data (pp. 173–194). Routledge.

61.

Rojas-Bernal

Castaño-Pérez

Restrepo-Bernal

(2018). Mental health in Colombia: A critical analysis. CES Medicina, 32(2), 129–140. https://doi.org/10.21615/cesmedicina.32.2.6

62.

Rose

(1999). Governing the soul: The shaping of the private self (2nd ed.). Free Association Books.

63.

Rose

Manning

Bentall

Bhui

Burgess

Carr

Cornish

Devakumar

Dowd

J. B.

Ecks

Faulkner

Ruck Keene

Kirkbride

Knapp

Lovell

A. M.

Martin

Moncrieff

Parr

Pickersgill

Sheard

(2020). The social underpinnings of mental distress in the time of COVID-19 – time for urgent action. Wellcome Open Research, 5(166). https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16123.1

64.

The Lancet Psychiatry. (2021). COVID-19 and mental health. The Lancet Psychiatry, 8(2), 87. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(21)00005-5

65.

Totton

(2000). Psychotherapy and politics. Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446218143

66.

Valencia

(1996). Violencia y Constituyente. Propuestas para un estudio de la Violencia en Colombia (25; Documento de Trabajo, Issue 25).