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Participatory research denotes the engagement and meaningful involvement of the community of interest across multiple stages of investigation, from design to data collection, analysis, and publication. Traditionally, people with first-hand experience of psychiatric diagnoses, service users, and those living with a psychosocial disability have been seen objects rather than agents of research and knowledge production, despite the ethical and practical benefits of their involvement. The state of the art of knowledge about participatory research in mental health Brazil is poorly understood outside of its local context. The purpose of this article was to conduct a scoping review of participatory and user-led research in mental health in Brazil. We identified 20 articles that met eligibility criteria. Participation in research was not treated as separate from participation in shaping mental health policy, driving care, or the broader right to fully participate in societal life and enjoy social and civil rights. Studies identified several obstacles to full participation, including the biomedical model, primacy of academic and scientific knowledge, and systemic barriers. Our extraction, charting, and synthesis yielded four themes: power, knowledge, autonomy, and empowerment. Participation in this context must address the intersecting vulnerabilities experienced by those who are both Brazilian and labeled as having a mental illness. Participatory research and Global South leadership must foreground local epistemologies that can contribute to the global debate about participation and mental health research.

Resumo: Analisando o sistema econômico em vigor, alguns autores têm argumentado que, atualmente, vivemos na nova cultura do capitalismo, caracterizada por uma estrutura econômica flexível, que exige dos trabalhadores algo muito além de seus próprios limites, capacidades e concepções morais. Trata-se de uma organização sem visão de longo prazo, fixando os empregados nos dilemas do presente e em uma atividade de trabalho com tarefas inócuas e acríticas. Parece que esse modelo social tem influenciado também o trabalho acadêmico, levando ao produtivismo desenfreado e tornando o conteúdo científico acrítico e estático. Partindo dessas análises do contexto contemporâneo, esta pesquisa teve como objetivo investigar a experiência de alunos de pós-graduação. Para tanto, foi realizada uma pesquisa de natureza empírica exploratória, na qual foram entrevistados seis alunos de um dos programas de pós-graduação mais bem avaliados da Universidade Estadual de Maringá (UEM). Os resultados mostram que os alunos vivenciam práticas bastante consistentes com a nova cultura do capitalismo. Esse cenário cria desafios futuros para se pensar em uma nova forma de produção acadêmica, orientada por um conhecimento científico não apenas coerente, mas também decente.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Brazilian urban peripheries have been severely affected both by the spread of the virus and by social, political, and economical dynamics, raising concerns about the psychological wellbeing and mental health of the population living in these areas. The pandemic broke out in a context of reduced public spending in social and health policies as well as in a process of erosion of social rights, fostering processes of exclusion and highlighting the association between austerity, the increase in poverty and inequality as well as in health and mental health problems indicators. This article presents the results of a qualitative participatory research that investigated subjective experiences in a peripheral neighborhood of São Paulo, Brazil, aiming to understand how contextual dynamics played a role in shaping mental health experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. A multidisciplinary team of researchers worked closely with local volunteers trained to provide emotional support calls to neighbors of the community who signed up for the project. This article presents three ethnographic cases of women who had their routines strongly affected by the suspension of public and social protection services for the containment of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, leading to psychological suffering due to the increased demand of “domestic circuits of care”. We argue that within a context of austerity, the pandemic was remarkably harsh in urban peripheries and, specifically, for women with caring responsibilities. In addition to highlighting the pervasive “social protection gap”, the cases presented in this paper also reveals the unequal dynamics of the social reproduction work in several layers, which falls mainly on women's shoulders. The “crisis of care”, proposed by gender and feminist scholars, can contribute to understanding the psychological outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic for these women.