RESUMEN
Eight years after the enactment of the National Mental Health Law (26.657), we consider it necessary to build spaces for debate on the potentialities and challenges in its practical implementation. This research addresses the mental health practices in the general public hospitals of the city of Rosario and Gran Rosario, Argentina, from the workers' perspective. Through a qualitative and exploratory / descriptive approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 mental health workers (nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and therapeutic companions). The analysis of the results allowed to stablish that the sanction of the law legitimized and strengthened already existing conceptions and practices, making possible its extension and the creation of new devices. Political, management, building, training and human resources limitations were analyzed. The scarcity of substitute devices to the psychiatric hospital, in addition to previously mentioned limitations, points to the importance of a Mental Health Plan, with clear resources, objectives and guidelines that may enable changes in the paradigm of care.