Autonomous Medication Management (GAM): new perspectives on well-being, quality of life and psychiatric medicationGestão Autônoma da Medicação (GAM): novas perspectivas sobre bem-estar, qualidade de vida e medicação psiquiátrica

Purpose – Formal recognition of the human rights of people living with mental health problems has greatly progressed. We must ask ourselves, however, to what extent the formal recognition of these rights has transformed the culture of psychiatric care and improved their quality of life. Gaining Autonomy & Medication Management (GAM) is an approach that strives to empower service users and providers and promotes the exercise of users’ rights by transforming their relationship with the central component of psychiatric treatment in community services: psychopharmacology. The purpose of this paper is to show how GAM highlights the issues surrounding the establishment of a culture of rights. Design/methodology/approach – For this analysis qualitative data were collected in Brazil and in Quebec, Canada, through over 100 interviews done with people living with mental health issues and practitioners who participated in the different GAM implementation projects. Findings – Issues, challenges and obstacles facing the instauration of a human rights culture in mental health services are presented. The profound changes that the understanding and exercise of users’ rights bring to the lives of individuals are supported by excerpts illustrating recurring issues, situations and common experiences that appear in the various contexts of the two different countries. Research limitations/implications – This is not a parallel study taking place into two countries. The methodologies used were different, and as a consequence the comparative power can be limited. However, the results reveal striking similarities. Originality/value – There is scant research on human rights in mental health services in the community, and the issues surrounding the prescribing and follow-up of pharmacological treatment. The joint analysis of the researches in Brazil and in Canada, identified common challenges which are intertwined with the dominant approach of biomedical psychiatry.

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La baladodiffusion facilite le processus d’engagement, de prise de distance et de création de sens des personnes impliquées, ainsi que la coconstruction des savoirs. Ces porte-voix modernes sont un moyen ayant le potentiel de démocratiser les connaissances, de les rendre plus accessibles et de favoriser une meilleure proximité avec un public cible. Cet article documente un projet à la croisée du travail social, des sciences infirmières et du journalisme, et qui a pour objectif mutuel l’inclusion de voix marginalisées ou de voix peu entendues au sein de l’espace public. Le processus de création d’une baladodiffusion, ainsi que l’artefact qui en est issu, représente le développement et l’utilisation de celle-ci comme un outil de partage des récits de vie et d’apprentissage qui met la voix des personnes concernées au centre d’un croisement des connaissances. Ce texte propose des pistes réflexives autour des rapports de pouvoir et de l’autoréflexion des chercheurs au regard du potentiel et des défis d’un tel projet collaboratif.