Abstract
This article presents some contributions of an intervention research on the mental health of children and adolescents based on the Autonomous Medication Management (GAM) strategy. Medication management is a critical issue in the Brazilian country despite the advances spurred by the Psychiatric Reform. Rarely do treatments consider the experiences lived by psychotropic users and their relatives as legitimate knowledge, and such issue becomes even more complex when these users are children. Besides the difficulties and barriers imposed by the diagnosis of mental disorder, the conception of childhood has been delimitated in the modern era, which produces relations of attention and protection considered necessary for children development, but end up creating impossibilities and limits to child participation in their care processes. Considering that, through the proposition of an Autonomous Medication Management (GAM) group at the Child and Youth Psychosocial Care Center (CAPSi) in Vitória/ES, this research aims to stimulate children’s participation in the context of mental health for children and adolescents in Brazil. The group included researchers, twenty-one family members of the children, and professionals, and consisted of weekly meetings of about one hour and a half. This article thoroughly describes the experience of one mother from the group and her son, discussing the paradoxes and ambiguities regarding the medication use, as well as the effects of the openness to the experience of infant participation in this process.
Keywords:
Mental Health; Childhood; Participation; Medication Systems