[Mental health: relevance of the problem, strategies and challenges to face in IMSS]

In the context of the 80th anniversary of the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS), there are several health problems and challenges to be faced in relation to user population, which currently represents 42% of Mexico's population. Among these issues, once five waves of COVID-19 infections have passed and mortality rates have decreased, mental and behavioral disorders stand out as a re-emerging and priority problem. In response to this, in 2022 the Mental Health Comprehensive Program (MHCP, 2021-2024) materialized, which represents, for the first time, the opportunity to provide health services that address mental disorders and addictions of user's population IMSS, under the Primary Health Care model. That is, prioritizing health promotion, risk factors prevention, screening, timely diagnosis, and not just hospitalization and drug supply. Among the MHCP strategies, which motivated the writing of this document, we highlight the availability of reliable data, through the census of mental and behavioral disorders, related to important characteristics in terms of population, state, hospital, prevalence of disorders, in order to act accordingly through the infrastructure and human resources available at the IMSS, with emphasis on the first level of care. Copyright © 2023 Revista Medica del Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social.

[What has been done at IMSS regarding the users's mental health in the COVID-19 pandemic?]

Nowadays, mental health has acquired greater relevance and attention as a consequence mainly of the COVID-19 pandemic, to which is attributed a negative impact on the development of life, work and social coexistence of people, along with the magnitude derived from non-communicable diseases. This is why the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS, Mexican Institute for Social Security) developed the Mental Health Comprehensive Program 2021-2024, whose main purpose was to establish strategies and lines of action for the prevention, early detection and timely management regarding mental health and addictions. Based on this, different actions have been carried out, for example, the identification of the material and human resources available at IMSS to meet the mental health issue;the training of healthcare professionals at the three levels of care;the integration of a census that has reported a prevalence of anxiety and depressive episodes in the users of 39.9 and 3%, respectively, as well as the evaluation of instruments for screening mental disorders. Therefore, this document describes what has been done in the IMSS in relation to the user's mental health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.