[Education of psychologists and their role in primary health care]

This paper takes as its basis the concept of comprehensive health care. The need to try out complementary approaches to health care is emphasized in order to ameliorate the effects of the epidemiological transition. The approach of Primary Health Care as a basic strategy is also presented. The importance of applying health system population approach to health care is also analyzed. A number of health care alternatives are presented in order to stabilize the health of a community. Within these alternatives the training of human resources with a focus on prevention as well as the curative approach are presented. The role that the psychologist plays within the comprehensive health care is also described. Also the authors describe an innovative training program directed to Psychologists at this stage, that integrates a Master on Public Health with emphasis in mental health with a residence program in Comprehensive Health Care as an option to contribute to replicate the alternatives of care presented in the paper. Finally, the programs and their advances are presented.