Incorporations and uses of the concept of recovery in the context of the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform: a literature review

Abstract The concept of recovery in the field of mental health, originating from the movement of patients and families in Anglo-Saxon countries, has become relevant for the understanding of care practices, valuing those that incorporate the protagonism of users and a critical dimension of treatment methods. Aiming to investigate the different perspectives in which the concept has been understood and experienced in the context of the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform, an integrative review of the published literature in the country regarding recovery was carried out, taking as inclusion criteria texts that report or analyze concrete experiences of care and define themselves as ‘recovery based’. After an extensive search, 32 works were analyzed, including articles, dissertations and theses. The term recovery appears in the Brazilian mental health bibliography from 2011 onwards, and the works are notably concentrated in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, linked to higher education and research institutions. Much of the production does not incorporate key elements of the concept studied, such as the role of users, in addition to sometimes taking recovery as a synonym for psychosocial rehabilitation. Despite the advancement and consolidation of the field of psychosocial care in the country, the dimension of the role of users is still incipient in the Brazilian experience.