Abstract

The contemporary epidemiological transition has shifted the focus of public health from premature mortality toward chronic disability. In this context, mental disorders have become the leading collective cause of disability worldwide, generating a growing burden of human suffering, social exclusion, and loss of functionality. Paraguay mirrors this global trend, facing significant gaps in care and limited availability of specialized resources. This opinion article argues that the current mental health crisis cannot be resolved exclusively through biomedical interventions or the expansion of psychiatric services. The growing prevalence of mental disorders demands a rehumanization of clinical practice and a profound transformation of medical education. Drawing on contributions from narrative medicine, professional identity formation, the CanMEDS framework, compassionate care, medical humanities, and Cicely Saunders’ concept of total pain, an integrative vision is proposed for training physicians capable of responding to human suffering in all its biological, psychological, social, and existential complexity

Keywords

mental health, humanized medicine, medical education, narrative medicine, medical professionalism, palliative care, total pain