Hotel da Loucura: the discontinuation of a successful public policy to promote mental health

Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.
– William Shakespeare (1603)

Hotel da Loucura [“Madness Hotel”] is one of the many seeds that echo Nise’s work. The space was founded in 2012 by psychiatrist and actor Vitor Pordeus. It arose from the need to build environments that worked as collective shelters. The Hotel took up the third floor of Instituto Municipal de Assistência à Saúde Nise da Silveira [Nise da Silveira Municipal Health Care Institute] and aimed at valuing the clients’ autonomy and self-healing strengths through the methodology of catalyst affect used in the drama workshops.
In spite of having had its doors open to the community for four years—the hotel was closed by the Municipal Health Department in 2016—, the experience (2009-2016) represented an achievement of the anti-asylum struggle due to its success in clinical cases, so much so that the groups went on meeting with presentations and workshops held in public spaces.

I even have a few patients, but I quickly turn them into actors. And the more they cease to be patients and become actors, the more they improve their health and autonomy. These are rituals of healthcare, of social construction, of acceptance, love, and community. 
– Vitor Pordeus (2015)