Apresentação

General Objective
To prepare, in a technical, scientific and innovative way, health professionals capable of analyzing, developing, implementing and monitoring policies, methods, instruments, actions and empirical knowledge in the field of mental health in its various contexts, based on the concept of biopsychosocial human being and of integral health, aiming at the transformation of actions in mental health in society and generating a healthy development for human beings and better quality of life for them.

Specific objectives
To provide technical and scientific training to human resources that meet the demand in regional mental health; to develop, together with the students, innovative practices of psychosocial action in mental health; to enable students to improve their performance in multidisciplinary teams and other interface practices with the health and social fields; to develop the student's critical sense in their professional performance, through theoretical-practical and scientific articulation, in order to contribute to the development of Psychology and its interfaces as a Science; to develop diagnostic surveys of mental health and social assistance services aiming at service improvements; to develop programs and methods applicable in the regional reality of mental health services in the metropolitan region of Ribeirão Preto, extending to other geographic regions; to provide technical and scientifically based services to the population demanding mental health services; foster the transformation of regional mental health services through innovative practices.

Graduate profile
Having as main objective the technical, scientific and innovative preparation of health professionals so that they are able to analyze, develop, implement and monitor policies, methods, instruments, actions and empirical knowledge in the field of mental health in its various contexts, the graduate of the professional master's degree in “Práticas de Institucionais em Saúde Mental” should have the technical and scientific skills to analyze, design, implement and evaluate transformative actions in the field of mental health in institutions from a systemic and generalist perspective. Such skills must be integrated in the graduate through the competence of integrative action of the different services and equipment, therefore, they must have a broad knowledge of the entire socio, political and economic process that is articulated with the mental health process in different institutional contexts, added of entrepreneurial attitudes towards social transformation.

The history of the conception and proposal of the professional master's program in "Práticas Institucionais em Saúde Mental" has its origin in the diversity of activities developed by the faculty of the Psychology course at UNIP Campus Ribeirão Preto. Each of the professors spent more than fifteen years developing scientific and technical activities that focused on the same theme, psychosocial action in institutions.

In 2015, the first research group of the Psychology course at the Ribeirão Preto campus of Universidade Paulista - UNIP, "Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisas em Estresse Ocupacional e Saúde Mental no Trabalho", which now, reconfigured and called "Grupo de Pesquisas em Saúde Mental nos Contextos Institucionais", supports this professional master's degree. This group originated from the research work developed since 2003 at UNIP, which, in the last ten years, has made up a total of twenty-nine scientific initiation grants from the proposing group, as a whole in the last ten years.

The group has an international cooperation agreement between researchers with Professor Marc Corbiére phd, from UQAM - Université du Quebec to Montreal and constitutes itself as the only representative in South America of the research network of the Center d'Etude et Recherche in Santé Mentale et Travail from Canada.

On the other hand, through the curricular internships of the undergraduate course in Psychology, voluntary actions, extension work and their professional activities parallel to teaching, professors had been developing technical work in institutions focused on health care, mental health, legal assistance , social assistance, education and organizations.
In particular, regarding the amount of technical work that the group had been developing, the following stand out: In the area of public health, the development, implementation and supervision of psychological services in Basic Health Units - UBS in the cities of Ribeirão Preto, Tambaú, Altinópolis, São Simão, Sertãozinho, Guatapará, Porto Ferreira and Orlândia, among others in the surroundings of Ribeirão Preto - SP. Such services aimed at individual and group care for UBS (Unidades Básicas de Saúde - UBS ) users, in the format of waiting room service and discussion groups for health promotion. In addition, services and protocols were developed and implemented for the care of patients with chronic pain and kidney problems in hemodialysis services.
In the area of Neuropsychology, the neuropsychological assessment of learning problems was being carried out, with the issuance of reports for directing children in state, municipal and private schools, in addition to the elaboration and conduction of several short-term courses in the area.
In the school area, works were carried out in public schools, initially aimed at understanding the structure and dynamics of the work developed in the school institution that presented the complaint. Then, individual and group services were implemented for students, teachers, employees and parents, and such services addressed issues related to schooling, sociability and sexual education problems in a broad way.

In the legal area, acting through the assessment of factors of social vulnerability and the issuance of psychological reports supporting judicial decision-making in judicial processes affecting children and youth, family and succession, the elderly, domestic and family violence against women, this in the cities of Ribeirão Preto and surroundings such as Batatais, Brodowski, Altinópolis and Orlândia.
In the area of social assistance, the activity carried out together with the "Voluntários do Sertão" program stands out, in which, once a year, for a week, professionals from different areas of health work in a city in the interior of northeastern Brazil and, In this work, with regard to Psychology, members of the group proposing this master's degree worked in leading groups of mothers and adolescents, giving lectures in schools, psychosocial care and with community therapy. In addition, there is work with the “Conselho Municipal da Criança e do Adolescente” (Municipal Council for Children and Adolescents), in which members of the group act as representatives of universities and as a counselor.

In the area of mental health, work has been carried out aimed at the resocialization of patients with severe mental disorders in daily routine activities, in which, through the work of Therapeutic Companion, the insertion of the patient in daily activities was carried out. Also, in this area, theoretical and practical guidance works were carried out for the local community with professionals working in the mental health area, in addition to organizing and holding events aimed at guiding family members of people with severe mental disorders.

In the area of mental health and work, activities were being carried out aimed at evaluating the mental health status of the demand that resorted to CEREST “Centro de Referência em Saúde do Trabalhador” – (Reference Center for Worker's Health) in Ribeirão Preto, in order to refer cases that needed psychological follow-up to the city's mental health and psychology services. Internally to public and private organizations, organizational diagnosis activities were also developed with a focus on mental health and stress at work to, from the results, develop interventions such as organizational development groups aimed at preventing mental health problems arising from the work.
Noting that the work of all professors, despite the diversity, was directed towards the axis of mental health in institutional contexts and, based on the research group already established since 2015, in 2018 a change was made in the research group taking away the specificity of studies on occupational stress and mental health at work and redirecting it to Mental Health in Institutional Contexts.

In this way, mental health was established as a new area of concentration in institutional contexts, understanding "Institution" as a construct that encompasses precepts, values, rules, practices and actions and that can interfere positively or negatively in the health-disease process of individuals at the same time throughout its life cycle.
Starting from the specificities of the human development process, it was understood that children and adolescents, as they are in an intense process of development and, therefore, more vulnerable than adults, established new lines of research for the group, covering the stages of development of the life cycle and, thus reconstituted, the Research Group on Mental Health in Institutional Contexts turned to its first joint production, the book "Práticas Psicossociais em Saúde Mental: da diversidade teórica ao encontro das atuações" (Sinopsys Editora), organized by the coordinator of the professional master's program and written by the members of the group. Released in April 2019, in the book, each member of the group narrates a little of their practical performances in the area of mental health. Based on different theoretical approaches, such as Cognitive-Behavioral, Psychoanalysis and Phenomenology and covering different institutional contexts such as public, school, clinical and legal health, the book was integrated into the guiding principle of practice aimed at promoting, preventing and treating problems of mental health in its different institutional contexts and consolidated the profile of the research group.

Encouraged by the publication and wide acceptance of the book by the community, the "I Encontro Internacional de Práticas Psicossociais em Saúde Mental" took place on the Ribeirão Preto campus of UNIP, on April 29 and 30, 2019, a meeting that aimed to generate a space for sharing and discussing psychosocial practices in mental health and soon it was widely accepted by the Psychology community in the city of Ribeirão Preto, region and south of Minas Gerais, having its 400 vacancies sold out twenty days before it was held. The Meeting enabled the consolidation of the research group in view of its purposes, including internationally seeking knowledge and technologies that can be adapted and implemented with the Brazilian population. In this sense, the opening conference of the meeting was given in person by the international collaborator of the research group, Prof. Marc Corbiere, phd from UQAM - Université du Quebec to Montreal and a closing lecture given by Prof. Dr. Manoel Antônio dos Santos (FFCLRP-USP). 52 papers were presented and the entire production of the meeting was organized in Annals (ISBN: 978-85-68328-05-7) The integration of all the professors with the new configuration of the research group, the analysis of training, practical experience, teaching experience, the group's technical work, the insertion and experience of the faculty in the midst of health institutions in the region of Ribeirão Preto and encouraged by the wide repercussion of the “I Encontro Internacional de Práticas Psicossociais em Saúde Mental", the idea was consolidated even more of the proposition of the professional master's Institutional Practices in Mental Health.

The professional master's Institutional Practices in Mental Health has its area of concentration in mental health in institutional contexts and its objectives are aimed at the transformation of mental health actions in society, focused on a graduate who must have the technical and scientific skills to analyze, design, implement and evaluate transformative actions in the field of mental health in institutions from a systemic and generalist perspective.

The program differs from other professional master's degrees in Psychology in the state of São Paulo by basing its training activities on actions linked to institutions and social and health facilities that are already established and lacking in innovative programs at the levels of promotion, prevention and treatment. We work, not only in the sense of developing, through the professional master's degree, a space that aims to train human resources for mental health with high technical-scientific training, but transcends its initial objective by proposing the mission of transformation of mental health actions in society, generating healthy development for human beings and better quality of life for them.
Thus, focused on mental health in institutional contexts and divided into two lines of research, one focusing on children and adolescents and the other focusing on adults, the professional master's program proposed here integrates the generality of a teaching staff experienced in the specificity of institutional interventions necessary in mental health, respecting and meeting the social, cultural and economic reality of the Ribeirão Preto region.

Mental Health in Institutional Contexts

Health is considered in contemporary times as the result of an inseparable biopsychosocial process. Thus, talking about mental health purely and simply, detached from other aspects, is meaningless. When approaching mental health, the aspects surrounding it must be considered, considering the interdependence and interdetermination of biological, psychological and social factors. Social factors are organized, and act on the individual, from institutions such as the family, schools, organizations in which the individual works, social support organizations such as ONGs (Organizações não Governamentais) (Non-Governmental Organizations), care and health care institutions such as UBS (Unidade Básica de Saúde) ( Basic Health Unit), CAPS (Centro de Atenção Psicossocial), hospitals and CR (Centros de Referência), among others. Understanding "Institution" as a construct that encompasses precepts, values, rules, actions and actions, such institutions can interfere positively or negatively in the health-disease process of individuals throughout their life cycle. Knowing and acting on the aspects of negative interference, redirecting them to the development of positive interference and guaranteeing mental health to the population is a possible and viable task and in this performance the activities of this professional master's program are concentrated.

Research lines

Line 1: Mental health and the different institutional contexts of child and adolescent development
Starting from the biopsychosocial concept of health, this must be seen in an integral way in the human being in interaction with his surroundings. Focusing on mental health, without disregarding biological and social aspects, it is known that aspects such as the constitution of the central nervous system and temperament, the family and its educational processes, the interaction in the school context and, finally, the interaction that occurs between the different institutions with the community and society inserted in a historical and cultural context, they can configure social conditions of vulnerability and interfere in the processes of psychological development, opening space to establish long-term mental health commitments in the individual's life. Through studies based on qualitative, quantitative, interventional and mixed methodologies, this line of research aims to analyze institutional variables in the context of the family, social and school nucleus in interaction with individual variables related to the maturation and functionality of the neuropsychological system, in order to to generate actions aimed at a healthy development of the human being. This line therefore works with work aimed at the promotion, prevention and treatment of mental health throughout psychological development, with its final focus on children and adolescents. Its products are methodologies, procedures, protocols, educational and intervention instruments, among others.

Line 2: Adult mental health in different institutional contexts
As a biopsychosocial being, one cannot detach the organic and environmental aspects of the individual's mental health. It is understood that an adult individual is inserted in a society organized through institutions with which he establishes a relationship of existential dependence, such as work, family, health care institutions and social assistance. Such a relationship of dependence acts on the mental health condition of this adult individual, and can contribute positively or negatively to it. Through studies based on qualitative, quantitative, interventional and mixed methodologies, this line of research focuses on the adult individual and aims to analyze the variables of the relationship between individuals and institutions, as well as the internal functioning of these institutions, focusing on the development of interventional procedures for the promotion, prevention and treatment of problems related to the mental health-disease process based on institutional contexts. It presents as final products, procedures of action, protocols, educational and intervention instruments, systematized programs of institutional development, among others.

Research projects

Line 1 - Mental health and the different institutional contexts of child and adolescent development
1- Children, adolescents and their families in a context of risk and social vulnerability.
After the Statute of Children and Adolescents, children and adolescents began to be seen as beings in development, with rights and protection safeguarded, this change provided professionals with a new social reading; psychologists, social workers and professionals for these purposes have gained a new scenario in public policies as important agents in the processes of care, protection and in the development of projects and works to guarantee rights. The family has become one of the focus of the work, as it is within the family that children and adolescents develop. This research project aims to identify indicators of risk and protection factors for children, adolescents and their families, in order to develop and apply interventional practices in low-complexity institutional contexts (population that is in a situation of social vulnerability, resulting from poverty, deprivation, lack of income, precarious or null access to public services, among others) of weakening affective bonds (relational and social belonging, gender and ethnic discrimination, among others), of medium complexity (social assistance institutions for families and individuals who are in a situation of personal or social risk due to threat or violation of rights, whose family and community ties have not been broken and who demand specialized interventions) and of high complexity (institutional shelter services, individuals with violated rights). The final objective of the works is to improve the developmental contexts of children and adolescents, safeguarding their mental health.
Teacher: Ana Carolina Ferreira Castanho

2 - Developmental neuropsychology in the context of education and health.
Problems related to neurodevelopment and cognition have been the focus of constant debates and concerns involving theorists from both education and health. Considering the premise of neuroplasticity and the perspective of the constitution of human development from biological, socio-affective and cultural variables, the present project aims to understand and identify risk factors for the development of preschool and school children, in the context of childhood disorders. neurodevelopment and learning problems. We work with assessment instruments, as well as other quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Thus, it is intended to contribute to the identification of protective aspects of child development, as well as to plan health promotion actions with professionals who work in school and health contexts.
Teacher: Ângela Cristina Pontes Fernandes

3 - Schooling problems: Strategies to promote mental health and human development in the school context.
The school is a social institution created with the function of teaching, and that can enable the promotion of developments in all involved (students, teachers, parents, etc.). The school context plays a structuring role in subjectivities, and can function as a space that produces pathologies and therapeutic potential. Based on the assumptions of Social Interactionist Psychology, and guided by an ethical commitment in the fight for a quality school, this project has two main objectives: a) to survey indicators that produce school problems and promoters of mental health in different contexts schools, from the point of view of the different participants in the context, and b) to develop innovative interventional practices seeking to train teachers, parents and/or students to deal with school problems. The project will have as participants any of those involved in the educational context. We will work with qualitative and quantitative methodologies and research with intervention, enabling the construction of workshops, lesson plans, informative guides or children's books, which address emerging problems in schools, aiming at the construction of innovative practices, in a critical perspective and interdisciplinary.
Teacher: Caroline Francisca Eltink

4 - Sexual education, in institutions, as a resource for the development of mental and sexual health.
Sexuality is a constituent part of human subjectivity, demanding, therefore, understanding and reflection in order to contribute positively to the development of children and adolescents. Here understood in its broad sense, sexuality encompasses several aspects, such as affection, love, friendship, gender, sexual practice, sexual orientation, reproduction and pleasure; and its consequences such as sexual abuse, autonomous experience of sexuality, gender differences, sexually transmitted infections, among others. The aim of this project is to equip students to carry out sexual education activities in institutions such as schools and families, so that they can lead to an understanding of the importance of the role of health professionals in the identification of risk and protection factors related to awareness of sexual education throughout development, from childhood to old age. Considering that the person's relationship with his surroundings can contribute to the construction of erroneous ideas and preconceptions regarding the experience of sexuality, which favor the development of psychopathologies, the emphasis of the work will be on school and family institutions, since these are the institutions contribute greatly to the development of the person's subjectivity. As products resulting from this project, it is intended to develop and implement instruments and procedures that enable the healthy development of sexuality, creating resources for the experience of an autonomous sexuality.
Teacher: Selma Aparecida Geraldo Benzoni

Line 2 - Adult mental health in different institutional contexts
1 - Mental health demands and actions in public health care contexts.
The institutions that correspond to the gateway to the “Sistema Único de Saúde” - SUS (Unified Health System), receive a diversified demand. Considering the biopsychosocial aspect, any illness that is treated in a health unit should demand a more complex and systemic look. This study is oriented to identify the prevalent needs, risk factors and/or mental health protection for users, family members and team of professionals who work in different contexts of public health care. Thus, the demands of mental health will be investigated, considering the biological, psychological and social factors involved, with the aim of producing new strategies for promoting, preventing and intervening in collective mental health.
Teacher: Ana Paula Parada

2 - Practices of social reintegration and citizenship promotion in the context of mental health
Work guided by the observation that workers in the mental health area need to guide their practices by the current legislation, especially with regard to services that intend to replace the old hospitalizations in psychiatric hospitals. Its goal is to promote the citizenship of those discharged from psychiatric hospitalizations and/or with demands for resocialization. In this sense, institutional clinical practices based on the theoretical-methodological framework of operative groups and phenomenology will be used in the discussion and guidance of possible interventions in the municipality's mental health services. As a method of collecting and analyzing data from research developed here, the same references will also be used, aiming at madness as a social phenomenon that can be understood in the collective context in which it manifests itself.
Teacher: Isabel Cristina Carniel

3 - Psychosocial intervention, focusing on stress in workers affected by work-related health problems.
In the work context, together with public and private organizations, many mental health impairments are observed and, based on a theoretical reference of cognitive behavioral psychology, stress is taken as a manifestation of psychosocial and mental health problems related to work, the project seeks a broad and cross-cultural understanding of the psychological and social issues that negatively affect the quality of life, functionality and productive capacity of sick workers. Based on the CIF – “Classificação Internacional da Funcionalidade e Incapacidade” – (International Classification of Functioning and Disability (WHO)), the project is developed through quantitative, qualitative and intervention methodologies, with workers from the public and private sectors as participants. Its products are the development of diagnostic instruments, intervention methodologies for recovery, strengthening and reinsertion of these workers in productive activities, as well as the development and implementation of educational programs related to health promotion and prevention related to mental health and work.
Teacher: Paulo Eduardo Benzoni

Physical space:

• Rooms for theoretical classes and seminars: 6 air-conditioned rooms, with microcomputers, data shows, DVDs, screens, tables and chairs.
• Space for Psychosocial Work: consisting of a building outside the campus, located in the central region of the city of Ribeirão Preto - SP and with easy access to the population. The space has 5 private and soundproofed rooms for individual service, air-conditioned, equipped with padded table and chairs; 4 rooms for group service, air-conditioned, with soundproofing, table and chairs for group participants and a mirror room, air-conditioned, with table and chairs, equipped with a translucent mirror for observation and a microphone with sound connected to the darkroom.
• Student room: air-conditioned meeting and study rooms for students, with tables, chairs, microcomputers with high speed internet access including wireless system, scanner and printer.
• Teachers' room: the program's professors have a room for meeting and student guidance, air-conditioned, with tables, chairs, microcomputers with high-speed Internet access including wireless system, scanner and printer.
• Permanent professors' workrooms : There are five air-conditioned rooms, with table, chairs, microcomputer with high speed internet access including wireless system, scanner and printer.
• Video conference room: an air-conditioned room, with data show, microcomputers, access to video conference (Computers - Celeron J1800 2.5Ghz - 4gb RAM, 19" monitors, Projector - BenQ MS531 3000 lumens, Webcam - Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000, Internet - 100 megs with redundant link) with image, sound and file sharing, screens, meeting table and chairs intended for meetings with international program partners.
• Rooms for Qualifications and Defenses: there are two air-conditioned rooms, with data show, microcomputers, access for video conference, screens, upholstered chairs, five-seat table for the Examining Board.
• Postgraduate Department that supports the Program's students and professors.
• Auditoriums: on the Ribeirão Preto campus there are six auditoriums with a capacity of 150 seats, and an amphitheater with a capacity for 590 seats, all with all the infrastructure for holding courses and events.

Computer resources
The Computer Laboratory, student and faculty rooms are equipped with computers connected to the UNIP computer network, with high-speed internet access, including the wireless system, e-mail and library network, which allows access to the entire the University's bibliographic collection.

UNIP makes available to postgraduate students a computer lab that contains 20 microcomputers, 01 printer and a computer technician at their disposal. All computers have state-of-the-art software for performing statistical analyses, preparing teaching materials, databases and text editors.

Libraries
The organization of UNIP libraries aims to meet the needs of courses and other activities at the University, supporting teaching and research. We highlight the availability of the CAPES Papers’ Portal for the entire academic community. Students and professors can consult books, monographs, theses, videos, CD-ROMs and periodicals through a totally revolutionary system, as libraries are already structured to support teaching and research within a multi-campus organization. The sector libraries (one on each campus) are controlled by a central information unit via. All the institution's libraries are connected online via the Internet, allowing full use of services and resources 24 hours a day, and respecting the decentralization of collections, necessary due to the different locations of the campuses. The current collection has 1,170,943 units of the most varied titles that are franchised to users, available for home loan and local consultation, with 24-hour online access for consultation, renewal and reservation.

Institutional Partnerships

The institutions, through the signing of Protocols of Cooperation between Institutions or Letter of Intent for Collaboration in Research, signed an interest and commitment in, in the form of partnerships, providing spaces for the development of practical activities concerning the program. These institutions are:

1. Municipal Health Department of Ribeirão Preto, which, by means of a Letter of Intent for Collaboration in Research (Official No. 2064/2019), the Municipal Health Secretary assumed a commitment to collaborate in the research to be developed by the students of the professional master's degree Institutional Practices in Mental Health, in all units that comprise municipal health services, especially services related to the provision of primary health care and mental health care.
2. “O Centro de Referência em Saúde do Trabalhador - CEREST e Centro de Referência em Saúde do Trabalhador – AST” (The Reference Center for Occupational Health - CEREST and Reference Center for Occupational Health – AST), through a Letter of Intent for Collaboration in Research, made the service spaces available and allowed access to the demand of service users to carry out research conducted by students of the professional master's degree. CEREST consists of a health reference center that receives and directs workers affected by work-related health problems to the SUS network, and AST provides medical, physical and speech therapy, among others, to workers.
3. A Unidade de Tratamento Dialítico e Transplante Renal de Sertãozinho - UNTR-SERT (The Sertãozinho Dialysis and Renal Transplantation Unit - UNTR-SERT), located in the city of Sertãozinho, in the metropolitan region of Ribeirão Preto, it provides hemodialysis and psychosocial support services to patients with chronic kidney disease and their families. Through a Protocol of Cooperation between Institutions, it signed a commitment to the professional master's program, making service spaces available and allowing access to the demand of service users to carry out research conducted by students.
4. The Court of the District of Ribeirão Preto - SP / Annex of Domestic and Family Violence, by means of a Letter of Intent for Collaboration in Research signed by its representative Judge, assumed a commitment to collaborate in research arising from the professional master's program, providing access to users of the aforementioned service in the Annex. The Domestic and Family Violence Annex works in the psychosocial sphere, providing support to victims of domestic violence.
5. O SESI/SP - Serviço Social da Indústria - Área de Educação (The SESI/SP - Social Service of Industry - Education Area), By means of a Letter of Intent for Collaboration in Research signed by the Executive Director, it assumed a commitment to collaborate in the research arising from the professional master's program, providing access to students, teachers, employees and parents for the development of work arising from the professional master's degree.
6. “A Escola Estadual Profa. Cordélia Ribeiro Ragozo” (The State School Prof. Cordelia Ribeiro Ragozo), through its Director, signed a Protocol of Cooperation between Institutions, authorizing access to students, teachers, employees and parents for the development of work arising from the professional master's degree.
7. The education sector company Parada Cursos Livres Eireli - ME, which operates in the segment of professional courses and its proposal is to provide, mainly to the population that lacks financial resources, opportunities to work in several areas directly linked to the current and future demands of the job market. With this institution, a Protocol of Cooperation between Institutions was signed, allowing access to students, teachers, employees and parents for the development of works arising from the professional master's degree.
8. “A Associação de Apoio ao Psicótico – AAPSI” (The Psychotic Support Association – AAPSI) aims to help people with mental disorders and their families through different types of groups and workshops. By means of a Letter of Intent for Collaboration in Research, it assumed a commitment to open space for the realization of work by students of the professional master's degree with its users, patients and their families, in addition to the organization's staff.
9. “A Associação Programa de Mãos Estendidas” (The Extended Hands Program Association) - PME, a Non-Governmental Organization that works with cases of domestic violence, signed a Protocol of Cooperation between Institutions, providing access to users of its services, as well as employees to carry out the work arising from the professional master's degree. The PME works towards the empowerment and breaking of violence against women, through prevention, through awareness and sensitization. Its target audience is women, from young people to the elderly, as well as the actors of violence
10. “A Associação Amigos do Autista” (The Friends of Autistic Association) - AMA - Ribeirão Preto SP, is a non-profit Civil Association, which aims to create educational programs of adaptation and social integration to people with autism, in addition to disseminating knowledge about ASD - Autistic Spectrum Disorder through campaigns and activities aimed at: motivating, guiding and welcoming families in the search for diagnosis, treatment, social and school inclusion of the person with ASD. Through a Protocol of Cooperation between Institutions, it provided access to users of its services, including children, adolescents and parents, as well as employees to carry out work arising from the professional master's degree.
11. “O Lar Anália Franco” (The Analia Franco Home), a philanthropic institution in the city of Ribeirão Preto, dedicated to social work, works in campaigns to collect and manufacture goods and products necessary for people in vulnerable situations, such as clothes and food. It is currently implementing a project aimed at the adequate insertion of people with Autistic Spectrum Disorder in the job market. Through a Protocol of Cooperation between Institutions signed by its president, it made available the physical and social structure of the institution to carry out the work arising from the professional master's degree.

International Exchanges:

Research collaboration agreement signed with UQAM - Université du Quebec à Montreal in Canada, which places the research group as the sole representative in South America of the research network of the Center d'Etude et Recherche in Santé Mentale et Travail, Canada . The work with UQAM is carried out in conjunction with Professor Marc Corbière phd, an international collaborator of the research group, and has been developed since 2016.