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Short abstract:

This presentation delves into how mental health professionals in Chile navigate diagnostic practices for children's mental health disorders amidst demands from schools and parents for enrollment in special needs programs. We argue that care plays a central role in this complex process.

Long abstract:

Mental health disorders have gained significant attention in recent decades, prompting profound changes in societal discourse and everyday experiences. While diagnoses serve as cultural intermediaries, guiding interpretations of experiences, they are now actively sought by individuals rather than imposed by medical authorities. This shift challenges traditional notions of medicalization and warrants a departure from conventional critiques. Rather, scholars are now advocating for examining how society engages with mental health categories, weighing the benefits and drawbacks of this interaction, and considering the lasting effects of being labeled with a diagnosis. However, there is still reluctance to address the issue of diagnosing mental health conditions in children, partly due to the belief that children are inherently "natural beings" and concerns about their sudden immersion into the medical realm. This hesitancy is supported by research indicating potential drawbacks and risks associated with diagnosing children with mental health conditions. Additionally, there are concerns about the increasing prevalence of mental health conditions and the possibility of overdiagnosis, particularly regarding conditions like ADHD.

In this presentation, we explore how mental health professionals think, feel, and decide whether to diagnose mental health issues amid demands from schools for diagnoses to enroll children in special needs programs, which have been highly criticized in Chile. Through in-depth interviews and ethnographic work, we investigate how diagnostic practices shape ideals of care in Chilean schools. Care, understood as highly confusing, ambiguous, and disorderly, emerges as a guiding principle that provides intelligibility and guides practices and actions.