Empowerment of users and family members in mental health care and in evaluative/interventional research: a brief comparison between the Anglo-Saxon tradition and the Brazilian experience/Empoderamento de usuarios e familiares em saude mental e em pesquisa avaliativa/interventiva: uma breve comparacao entre a tradicao Anglo-Saxonica e a experiencia brasileira

The scope of this article is to assess the main characteristics of the traditions and experiences of empowerment of users and family members in mental health treatment and services in Anglo-Saxon countries and in Brazil and the repercussions and strategies thereof in the field of evaluative and interventional research in mental health. Based on a brief bibliographical review of the literature, the aim is to compare how the empowerment tradition has developed in the two realities, based on the characteristics of the economic, political, social--and especially cultural--context. The review revealed how these contexts induce different perspectives on how to foster the autonomy and empowerment of users and family members in social policies and mental health, as well as their appropriation in the field of evaluative and interventional research. In Anglo-Saxon countries, this tradition has been vigorously promoted over the past four decades, and in Brazil the participative strategies emphasize mixed mechanisms--professionals, users and family members together--with the dominant presence of the professionals. The strategies in Brazil more directly designed for users and family members are recent and have been implemented from 2005 onwards. Key words Mental health, Empowerment, Autonomy, Evaluative research, Interventional research O objeto deste artigo sao as principais caracteristicas das tradicoes e experiencias de empoderamento de usuarios e familiares em abordagens e servicos de saude mental em paises anglosaxonicos e no Brasil, e suas repercussoes e estrategias no campo da pesquisa avaliativa e interventiva em saude mental. O objetivo e comparar, atraves de uma breve revisao bibliografica da literatura, como as tradicoes de empoderamento se desenvolveram nos dois cenarios, a partir de caracteristicas do contexto economico, politico, social e particularmente cultural. A revisao mostrou como estes contextos geram diferentes perspectivas de valorizacao da autonomizacao e empoderamento de usuarios e familiares nas politicas sociais em geral e em saude mental, como tambem nas apropriacoes no campo da pesquisa avaliativa e interventiva em saude mental. Nos paises anglo-saxonicos, esta tradicao vem se desenvolvendo fortemente ha cerca de 4 decadas, e no Brasil as estrategias participacionistas enfatizam mecanismos mistos--profissionais, usuarios e familiares juntos--, com a presenca dominante dos profissionais, e as iniciativas mais diretamente desenhadas para os u