Launch of the Professional Master's Degree in Psychology and Health Interventions

Room 306 of the Campus Classroom Pavilion Brotas needed extra chairs to receive the public that attended the launch of the Professional Master's Degree in Psychology and Health Interventions of the Graduate Program Stricto Sensu da Escola Bahiana de Medicina e Saúde Pública, which took place on the night of April 2nd. To mark the occasion, the conference "Research within the scope of Professional Practice in Psychology: contemporary challenges" was given with Professor Virgílio Bastos.

Unique in Bahia and one of the few in Brazil in the professional modality, the course lasts 24 months and enrollment is already open until May 15th. Interested parties can access the Portal of Graduate of Bahiana, where the Applicant Manual and the record of enrollment.

Marking the launching ceremony, an opening table was formed with the presence of the Dean of Research and Innovation, Dr. Atson Fernandes, from the coordinator of the Psychology undergraduate course at Bahiana, Dr. Sylvia Barreto, from the Post-Graduate Manager, Prof. Silvia Passos, from the Coordinator of the Master's Program, Dr. Mônica Daltro and the respective vice-coordinator, Dr. Marilda Castelar. The dean of the Bahiana, Dr. Maria Luisa Carvalho Soliani, the Dean of Extension, Prof. Carolina Pedroza, the Coordinator of People Development, Prof. Luiza Riberio, the Coordinator of Administration and Finance, Emanoel Olímpio Alves de Souza, managers, teachers and employees of the institution, in addition to students and student candidates of the new course.

In her speech, Dr. Maria Luisa Carvalho Soliani highlighted the institution's innovative character. "THE Bahiana it is always open to new ideas. We always invent new things, but they are inventions with responsibility, ethics and principles to which we are always very attentive".

According to Mônica Daltro, Professor Virgílio Bastos also contributed to the process of preparing the course. For him, the new course is born to contribute to the training of professional psychologists in the state. "In the context of Bahia, this is a new experience, which fills a very large gap. Until then, we had only one postgraduate program - which is academic (UFBA), with well-defined areas. This new course opens up a space very important in the health area, as a large part of psychology works in health."

The course brings as research lines "Psychology and Interventions in Hospital Contexts" and "Care Practices and Intervention Processes in Extended Clinic". The first is focused on the improvement of professionals and the development of investigations and care technologies at the interface between Psychology and the various health problems in the hospital environment; the second, in turn, is aimed at the development of research and tools arising from psychological knowledge applied to different care practices in the field of extended clinic and clinic in private and public contexts that address mental health.

In your lecture, prof. Virgílio Bastos pointed out the false belief that the professional master's degree has a lower value than the academic one. Mônica Daltro clarifies that the course has the same social and legal recognition as an academic program. "The professional master's is characterized by being aimed at training and qualifying professionals in the field. It has the same value as the academic master's, only with the difference that, in this case, the production to be developed during the course is not exclusively theoretical", stresses the coordinator.

For Prof. Marilda Castelar, the professional master's has a very important role from the point of view of referring and contributing to professional improvement. "We already have a history, in psychology, of building technical references, but we need to advance in the construction of new tools and in the connection between theory and practice. A professional master's degree cannot result in a product that also does not require critical thinking, a reflection on their own theories in practice, and taking this path of thinking about concrete reality in order to reformulate theories."

In this perspective, the course proposes to develop care technologies and contemplate emerging themes in psychology and health, linking theoretical-methodological knowledge with its applicability in the fields of action, and the master's student can present the final product of their research in video, text format. , booklets, games, software, websites etc.