Brazilian Chamber Approves Therapeutic Community and Birth-Team Health Bills

The Chamber of Deputies approved a bill amending the drug‑policy law to permit therapeutic communities to admit children and adolescents struggling with drug dependence. The measure creates two new admission types – assisted and voluntary – and requires a multidisciplinary team, residential facilities and separation from adult patients. Deputy Fernando Máximo said the proposal “does not violate the anti‑psychiatric principle, but reinforces it, keeping admission as an exceptional measure with technical and institutional safeguards.”

In a separate measure, the Chamber’s Committee on Social Welfare approved a project that encourages the presence of physiotherapists on multidisciplinary birth teams in the public health system. The bill aims to humanise obstetric care, alleviate pain without medication and speed postpartum recovery. Deputy Laura Carneiro noted the proposal “respects the federative pact and creates concrete mechanisms for its implementation, avoiding a merely programmatic norm.” The law will offer financial incentives to states and municipalities to hire physiotherapists and adapt delivery rooms.