Abstract
This study discusses the construction of devices for the production of psychosocial care, which are based on the proposal of Gaining Autonomy & Medication Management in Primary Health Units in São Paulo, where groups were formed based on co-management and sharing of experiences, formed by psychiatric medication users. Workers moderated these groups and attended weekly support workshops for 15 months. This process has given visibility to a complex problematic condition in which the increasing mass prescription of psychiatric drugs over the years in primary care and the concentration of health responsibility on mental health in specialized care services are combined. The construction of these devices allowed a common production of care and support outside the field of medicalization, which destabilized barriers to autonomy, posed by the verticality of health team practices, the workers’ domination relations over users and the power relations built around specialized knowledge. The common ground established by users and workers in these collective processes has broadened the notion of support in the Brazilian public health field.
Keywords:
Medicalization; Psychiatric Medication; Mental Health; Autonomy