Solidarity economy generates income and autonomy for psychiatric patients

After severe depression, bouts of schizophrenia, multiple hospitalizations and a five-year sick leave, Luciana, 45, returned to work at a belt factory in São Paulo ready to start again. But the return only lasted a few hours.

“When she saw me, the owner of the place told me: ‘look, the ghost-employee appeared’. That hurt me a lot, it was immeasurably insensitive. I started to cry, I felt bad and left for good.”

She needed another year of treatment at Caps (Psychosocial Care Center) Butantã, in the west side of São Paulo, to stabilize again. During this period, she met a solidary economy project and began to be prepared to work as a waitress at a restaurant linked to the initiative, Comedoria Quiririm.

“In the beginning, it was not easy to have contact with people. I saw people happy, laughing and wanted to disappear. But the psychologists said: ‘you can do it, you can do it.’ that I do, I love the food I prepare, that I serve. People like me, they respect me.”

With Risonette, 49, the same thing happened. After a diagnosis of depression, several suicide attempts and 11 admissions to psychiatric hospitals, she took a course in agroecology and is now a management assistant at Orgânicos no Ponto.

The project sells 120 baskets of organic products per week, including produce, eggs, bread, juices and others. All in partnership with small producers in the region. “The mental health patient is stigmatized by the use of medicine. Starting to produce the other person’s food ends up breaking this stigma”, she says.

Luciana and Risonete are part of a solidarity economy project linked to the Municipal Health Department and which is part of the Psychosocial Care Network (Raps). The initiative involves work and income generation projects, in addition to social cooperatives aimed at the rehabilitation of people with mental disorders.

Face-to-face activities had been suspended for 16 months due to the Covid pandemic and have recently resumed.

“He missed the work in person, seeing people’s faces. He showed up there to eat with us. He invites people. The food is delicious”, says Luciana. She still lives with bouts of anxiety attacks, but says that, with the use of medication and work, she is able to deal with them better.

According to Adriana Oliveira, technical advisor in the mental health division of the Municipal Health Department, the solidarity economy points linked to psychosocial rehabilitation started in 2016.

Ponto Butantã already had 54 workers and currently has 25. In addition to the suspension of some activities, during the pandemic many patients ended up having their psychiatric illnesses unbalanced and undergo mental care to return to work.

At Butantã, there is a restaurant, a vegetable garden, an organic shop, a bookstore, a craft shop and a sewing workshop. At Ponto Benedito Calixto, managed by 11 people, there is a social store with products from around 45 projects and a workshop that creates opportunities and conditions for program users to develop skills in handcrafted products.

Oliveira explains that many patients linked to CAPS already have some productive activity (crafts, for example), but still much more linked to treatment than actually to socioeconomic reintegration, which is the objective of the solidarity economy points.

“They leave that place of a sick person, without autonomy, for a different social role, as someone who works, who manages to organize themselves in the collective, who has income.”

Although most of the ventures have started within mental health services, such as Caps and Centers for Coexistence and Cooperatives (Ceccos), the goal is for them to be seen outside of this context.

“They are part of the rehabilitation project, but they are places of work, not the place where the person is undergoing treatment. This self-management format allows the person to build their autonomy”, explains psychologist Alessandra Rosini Carrasco, facilitator of Ponto of Solidarity Economy and Culture of Butantã.

Carrasco says that one of the biggest challenges of the project is that decisions are made horizontal, that is, that people can participate in the decision-making process and in the management of the projects, gaining more autonomy, without depending so much on the interference of health professionals.

“Some people had very serious mental illness, so it’s not easy. We propose another type of work, which is not just a point of sale of products, but a cultural hub, which integrates the environment, sustainability, mental health” , says the psychologist.

She explains that the projects also have a partnership with the community, such as an incubator at USP and with the help of a team from Sesc in the qualification of professionals so that the initiatives are actually economically viable and sustainable.

​Service:

Point of Solidarity Economy and Culture of Butantã
Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm
On Saturdays and Sundays, open when there are events
Av. Corifeu de Azevedo Marques, 250, Butantã, São Paulo – SP

Ponto Benedito Solidarity Economy and Culture
From Wednesday to Friday, from 11 am to 6 pm
Saturday from 11am to 7pm
Ponto also follows the fair and square’s agenda.
From March 2022, Fridays and Saturdays from 11 am to 6 pm
Benedito Calixto Square, 112, Pinheiros, São Paulo – SP