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Background: 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, services users and those living with a psychosocial disability have been seen objects rather than agents of research and knowledge production. This, 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. Findings: 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. Implications of the work: 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.

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Hearing Voices peer support groups allow people to construct understandings of their voices. The groups focus on supporting voice hearers in reducing distress associated with voices through an array of strategies. This study sought to describe the voice management strategies shared in a hearing voices peer support group within a Brazilian public mental health service. In this qualitative study we recorded 10 group meetings. Transcripts were coded and analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings indicated five themes, described as: (1) strategies used to avoid distressing experiences; (2) strategies for managing the voices; (3) strategies for seeking social support; (4) strategies for creating a sense of belonging in the community; and (5) strategies related to spirituality and religiosity. These strategies appear to be essential in helping voice hearers feel less alone, reducing the amount of distress associated with hearing voices, and developing coping strategies. These groups provide people who hear voices with the opportunity to share their stories with peers in a group setting, construct new understandings about the experience, and learn strategies for managing their voices. Accordingly, there are great possibilities for the use of these groups within mental health services throughout Latin America.

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The care of people with mental health problems requires health system and service reforms to build up proper mental health care. The challenges of the present moment continue to be immense. The viral pandemic that we are experiencing has exposed the fragility of our health and social services and certified the inequality and precariousness of the living conditions of many people. The collection of articles published in the journal Salud Colectiva as part of the open call for papers "Mental health and human rights: challenges for health services and communities," includes articles from Spain, Brazil, Mexico, and Chile. These papers present conceptual experiences and reflections on community action plans and programs, contributing toward better knowledge and development of mental health in the region.

La asistencia de personas con problemas de salud mental requirió reformas en el sistema y los servicios de salud para construir una atención adecuada de la salud mental. Sin embargo, el desafío actual continúa siendo inmenso. La pandemia viral que atravesamos ha dejado al descubierto la fragilidad de nuestros servicios sanitarios y sociales y ha certificado la desigualdad y precariedad de las condiciones de vida de muchas personas. En este sentido, en el conjunto de artículos publicados en la revista Salud Colectiva, como resultado de la convocatoria abierta "Salud Mental y derechos Humanos: desafíos para los servicios de salud y comunidades" encontramos aportes de España, Brasil, México y Chile, en los que se presentan experiencias conceptuales y reflexiones sobre planes y programas de acción comunitaria, que pueden contribuir a un mejor conocimiento y desarrollo de la salud mental en la región.

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This paper analyzes ten recovery narratives of people with a serious mental illness who received mental health services in the public health care system of the city of Campinas, Brazil. We describe the person's recovery process and their relationship with the clinical services they received. This is a very needed conversation because the incorporation of recovery and recovering citizenship concepts in clinical practice are still incipient in South America. Most importantly, this research adds to the dialogue around recovering citizenship in different cultures. METHODS: We used phenomenological methodology to interpret data drawn from the participant's life course interview (using the McGill Illness Narrative Interview). RESULTS: We found that a) Before receiving services, people were overwhelmed by symptoms, but did not know what was going on; b) Loved ones and clinicians explained symptoms as part of a mental illness, and the proposed treatment was largely accepted; c) Mental health treatment was seen as helpful but not enough to address what was meaningful for their lives; d) People regained a life in their community, they felt proud of their recovery process, and solidarity and collectivism seemed to play important roles in their recovery process. DISCUSSION: We identified similarities and differences in the recovery process of people with serious mental illness receiving public mental health services in Campinas, Brazil, when compared to the international literature. Receiving mental health services was very helpful for participants, principally when feeling overwhelmed by symptoms. Mental health services seemed to be less effective in helping people regain a meaningful life in their communities. Solidarity from friends and family members was recognized as an important recovery asset.

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Phenomenological investigations are concerned with unfolding the nature of a phenomenon through the process of describing and understanding subjective lived experiences. The process through which this is accomplished varies according to the underlying philosophical concepts and specific methodological strategies adopted. A common means of achieving this objective is through hours-long interviews that are recorded and later transcribed and analyzed. The present article describes an alternative method that accesses the participants' experiences of a phenomenon through encounters with a researcher, who then uses dialogical data to develop comprehensive narratives. These are written in first person in order to grasp the participant's significant meanings based on what emerged during their encounter and its impact on the researcher. A narrative synthesis is then constructed in order to enable the phenomenological process of analysis to reach the structural elements based on all participants' experiences. Exemplary excerpts are presented in order to illustrate the process.

Investigações fenomenológicas empenham-se em desvelar a natureza de um fenômeno por meio da descrição e compreensão de experiências vividas. Esse processo apresenta variações de acordo com os conceitos filosóficos subjacentes e as estratégias metodológicas adotadas. A forma habitual consiste na gravação de longas entrevistas que são posteriormente transcritas e analisadas. O presente artigo descreve um método alternativo para entrar em contato com as experiências dos participantes sobre determinado fenômeno, por meio de encontros dialógicos com o pesquisador. Este desenvolve narrativas compreensivas, escritas em primeira pessoa, com o propósito de captar os significados das experiências dos participantes a partir do impacto provocado pelos encontros vividos com eles sobre si mesmo. Uma narrativa síntese é, então, construída para dar prosseguimento ao processo de análise, a fim de revelar os elementos estruturais do fenômeno a partir das experiências de todos os participantes. Exemplos são apresentados para ilustrar o processo.

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