Mental health advocacy: Reassessing the history of mental health organizations in the second half of the twentieth century

Description du projet

Histoire de la défense et des mouvements en faveur de la santé mentale après la Seconde Guerre mondiale

Financé par le programme Actions Marie Skłodowska-Curie, le projet ADMEHE entend étudier l’histoire de la défense de la santé mentale et de l’autoreprésentation dans les cas de troubles mentaux, de retard mental et d’autisme au cours de la période qui a suivi la Seconde Guerre mondiale. La recherche couvrira les mouvements en faveur de la santé mentale en Europe et en Amérique du Nord en utilisant la littérature et les sources de recherche originales sur des patients grecs et français, leurs familles et des organisations professionnelles. À partir de documents publiés, d’entretiens et de données issues des travaux de la Société de psychiatrie sociale et de santé mentale en Grèce, l’étude utilisera une approche comparative, combinant l’histoire, la sociologie et l’anthropologie. En définitive, le projet fournira une réévaluation précieuse de l’histoire occidentale de la défense de la santé mentale.

Objectif

The research examines the history of advocacy and self-advocacy for mental disorders, mental retardation and autism after WWII, when mental health advocacy gained momentum in the Western world. It focuses on the unexplored Greek case, but situates it within the broader history of social and mental health movements in Europe and North America, based on secondary literature and original comparative research on Greek and French patients’, families’ and professionals’ organizations. Using archival and published material, oral history interviews, questionnaires, as well as data from the observation of and participation in the work of a Greek organization, the Society of Social Psychiatry and Mental Health (SSP&MH), the research adopts an interdisciplinary and comparative approach, combining history with sociology and anthropology, and comparing the Greek and French examples. In these ways the study will offer a better understanding and the critical reassessment of the history of mental health advocacy in the West. To implement the project, Dr Kritsotaki will move from Greece to CERMES3, Paris, France, to sharpen her knowledge and skills in history and undertake systematic training in sociology and anthropology, especially in the skills connected with questionnaire-based surveys, fieldwork and participant observation. She will also collaborate with present-day Greek and French mental health organizations and will complete a secondment of two months in the SSP&MH, gaining hands-on experience on mental health advocacy and enhancing her communication, cooperation, coordination and management skills. Thus the research will address the both the history and contemporary state of advocacy and mental health movements, will achieve its dissemination and communication aims and will enhance its social impact, while at the end of the action the researcher will have attained a reinforced and mature research position and new career prospects in academia and advocacy.