Collaborative Management of Medication: A research project and participatory action in mental health

Collaborative Medication Management (GCE), also known as Autonome Management of Medication (GAM), is an initiative developed in the early 1990s in Quebec (Canada) by research teams in collaboration with civil society and, especially , with users of mental health services and their advocates (advocacy groups). In recent years it has received a boost with the transfer of this experience in Brazil under the framework of The International Alliance of Recherche Universities - communautés, Santé mentale et Citoyenneté (ARUCI-SMC). The GCE starts from a focus on empowering the participation of the consumer of psychotropic drugs, especially anti-psychotic medication. The purpose is to allow these consumers, generally at risk of exclusion, to have access to all the necessary information about medicines and their alternatives, since several studies show that between 25 and 50% of users with a diagnosis of Schizophrenia do not obtain the expected result of the treatment, despite complying on a regular basis. This situation has not changed ostensibly with the emergence of second generation anti-psychotics.

The undesirable effects of physical and psychological type (increase in body weight, risk of metabolic syndrome, concentration difficulties, effect on self-esteem, etc.), as well as the social meanings linked (stigmatization, discrimination, etc.), which Users may be more important than the tangible effects of medicines, they are factors that cause inequality in access to health and hinder the therapeutic alliance and autonomy of this group.

The objective of this project is to adapt the experience of Collaborative Medication Management (GCE) in the Catalan area and develop it by publishing a specific GCM Guide that, through intense focused ethnographic and qualitative research, will be designed by an inter- -disciplinary, together with a group of users, caregivers and mental health professionals, as well as disseminate, using the potential of Radio Nikosia (www.radionikosia.org) and other communication channels, the results of the initiative. This is a research oriented towards the implementation of integrated and sustainable health policies within the scope of mental health that allow the promotion of participation among this group and the achievement of a full level of citizenship.