São Paulo city government plans to intensify social assistance actions and hospitalizations in the Crackland region

The São Paulo city government plans to intensify social assistance actions in the Crackland (Cracolândia) region in the coming weeks, increasing the number of hospitalizations of users, including involuntary ones.

The flow through the capital’s center has not stopped since March when an operation by the Civil Police and the City Council drove drug addicts from Princesa Isabel Square.

The involuntary internments remain the most controversial point of the operation.

According to City Hall, the examination of patients is carried out by teams walking the center streets. Patients with mental disorders are taken to the hospital by ambulance.

Those who are clinically unstable will first be cared for by Samu and then admitted to a hospital. There will be openings for voluntary, involuntary, and forced internment – for those who need judicial approval. According to the project, the structure is designed to prevent escapes.

The secretary of strategic projects of the municipality, Alexis Vargas, believes that the number of authorizations should be increased.

“We are expanding our capacity, leaving clearer criteria and a more established process. So I think that in cases where the person is at risk, the doctor has more certainty to make the right referral, and we can make more qualified internment,” he says.

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