3. Results and discussion

As a result of the searches, we found seven extension reports. Below, we present the name of each report and its period of execution: 1) Music Workshops: Psychosocial Care Center (CAPS) Indaial, September 2019 to December 2020; 2) Music Workshops: CAPS Indaial, February to December 2021; 3) Theatrical Imagination in Mental Health, September 2019 to December 2020; 4) Theatrical Imagination in Mental Health, February to December 2021; 5) Mental Health and Solidarity Economy: strengthening psychosocial rehabilitation actions, September 2019 to December 2020; 6) Mental Health and Solidarity Economy: strengthening psychosocial rehabilitation actions, February to December 2021; 7) Psychosocial rehabilitation actions in Blumenau and Indaial, February to December 2022.

Considering the plurality of elements found and the limits of an article, we chose to record the information in a table (Table 1), in an attempt to offer a panoramic view of the main elements that supported our analyses.

To facilitate the reading of this text, considering that reports 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6 are, respectively, partial and final reports of the same project, we chose to group the documents and identify them as follows: reports 1 and 2 were called “A - Music”; 3 and 4 are identified as “B - Theater”; 5 and 6 were named “C - Psychology”; and report 7 was identified as “D - General”. Reports A, B and C were named as such because they concern specific actions linked, respectively, to the areas of Music, Theater and Psychology. Report D received a generic title, as it covered a variety of actions, such as: music, theater and ceramics workshops, meetings, events, etc. All reports refer to extension projects that were executed over two years, except for report D, which lasted only one year.

Next, we will analyze the main issues found in the reports. We then chose to group the activities that had similar objectives; to this end, we constructed three categories: a) networking and work organization; b) training and production activities; c) sharing and dissemination actions. In these analyses, we sought to highlight the subjects and university extension actions that, from the perspective of Popular Education, aim to strengthen the psychosocial rehabilitation of people with mental suffering.

3.1 Networking and work organization

One issue that caught our attention was the plurality of social agents involved in the actions, including singular subjects, public institutions, community groups, solidarity economic enterprises and networks. Even considering that the description of the agents may make the text less fluid to read, we understand that it is of utmost importance to identify and recognize all those involved in the actions analyzed in this article, so we will list them below.

In relation to the academic context, we found that the teams that made up the extension projects included four professors and seven scholarship holders, linked to the courses of Visual Arts, Music, Psychology, Social Service and Theater, in addition to having the support of a technical employee for secretarial activities. These teams were part of ITCP/FURB and were financed by the Pro-Rectory of Research, Graduate Studies, Extension and Culture (Propex, in portuguese) and by the Support Fund for the Maintenance and Development of Higher Education (Fumdes, in portuguese). In addition to the teams of the extension projects, two student organizations also collaborated with the actions: Silvia Lane Academic Center of Psychology and Karl Marx Academic Center of Social Service, both linked to the Universidade Regional de Blumenau.

Regarding the institutions, we identified as direct partners, that is, those who collaborated directly in carrying out the activities: a) in the city of Blumenau: Health Promotion Department of Blumenau; Department of Culture and Institutional Relations of Blumenau; Adult Psychosocial Care Center (CAPS II, in portuguese), Alcohol and Drug Psychosocial Care Center (CAPS AD); and III) Child and Adolescent Psychosocial Care Center (CAPSi, in portuguese); b) in the city of Indaial: Municipal Health Department of Indaial and CAPS.

Regarding solidarity economy networks and/or enterprises, we identified the collaboration of the Solidarity Economy Network of the Vale do Itajaí (Resvi, in portuguese) and the Public Center Showcase of the Solidarity Economy (Vitrine, in portuguese), operating in Blumenau. We also identified actions in partnership with the Mental Health and Solidarity Economy Network of Curitiba and region (Libersol, in portuguese) and the Mental Health and Solidarity Economy Network of São Paulo.

Regarding solidarity economy networks and/or enterprises, we identified the collaboration of the Solidarity Economy Network of the Vale do Itajaí (Resvi, in portuguese) and the Public Center Showcase of the Solidarity Economy (Vitrine, in portuguese), operating in Blumenau. We also identified actions in partnership with the Mental Health and Solidarity Economy Network of Curitiba and region (Libersol, in portuguese) and the Mental Health and Solidarity Economy Network of São Paulo.

Indirect partners – that is, those who were not directly involved in the execution of the activities described in the reports, but who maintain frequent partnerships with ITCP/FURB and, thus, collaborate to some extent in the actions linked to the extension projects – include: Cáritas Brasileira Regional Santa Catarina; Central de Cooperativas e Empreendimentos Solidários (Unisol); Conselho Estadual de Artesanato e Economia Solidária (Ceaes); Fórum Brasileiro de Economia Solidária (FBES); Fórum Catarinense de Economia Solidária (FCES); Frente Parlamentar de Economia Solidária da Assembleia Legislativa de Santa Catarina; and Rede Nacional de ITCPs (REDE ITCPs).

Based on the identification of the social agents registered in the reports, we noticed a central characteristic of these projects: network action. It is important to understand that the network approach in the analysis of social movements and extension actions is important “[...] not only for its articulatory characteristics, but considering the new forms of institutionality and the new sociabilities resulting from the logic of solidarity cooperation”(^{Sheren-Warren; Lüchmann, 2004}, p. 17), as they infer about the living conditions of these subjects and society as a whole. In this perspective, the analysis of the reports allowed us to perceive that network action was not characterized only by the identification of various social agents involved in the same activity. Network action became evident when we analyzed the description of the actions, which revealed the logic of the Solidarity Economy and Popular Education as constituent dimensions of these activities, since they prioritized collective actions aimed at self-management, which concerns the production and democratic sharing of knowledge and practical-political actions.

For example, when we analyze the actions of the radio program, we realize that it is an action carried out by users and professionals of CAPS II and CAPS AD III and by members of Enloucrescer, which had the partnership of Adenilson Teles Community Radio, and that the editions analyzed in this article also had the support of a scholarship holder from ITCP/FURB. All actions related to the program, such as the choice of interviewees, the interview themes, the questions asked during the interviews and the program's narration, for example, were decided and carried out collectively and democratically, with the aim of respecting and enhancing the different knowledge and practices of the participating subjects.

Thus, ^{Mance (2002)} theoretical contributions helped us understand that network action requires an emphasis on the relationships between integrated diversities and on the flow of elements in which these relationships circulate, with the aim of enhancing the collective, without disregarding the singularities that compose it. This implies recognizing that the perspective of network action has a political dimension, in the sense of advocating the democratic management of power, guaranteeing all its members the conditions to actively participate in decision-making processes, as well as to assume commitments in the fight for rights and in the construction of citizenship.

Regarding organizational activities, we identified a total of 98 meetings involving Enloucrescer and/or Aufasam Recomeçar. These meetings occurred at different intervals, with those with the first association being held weekly, while those with the second occurred at different intervals. The meetings were attended by members of the respective associations, two or three professionals linked to mental health services in the respective towns, a teacher and one or two students linked to ITCP/FURB, depending on the occasion.

A central feature of these meetings was the practice of collective decision-making on the activities carried out by the associations, that is, it was in these spaces that members collectively and democratically evaluated their actions, whether those in development or in the proposal phase. In this sense, based on the contributions of^{Leal e Rodrigues (2018)}, we consider that the meetings held by the associations reveal self-management as a guiding principle of the Solidarity Economy, since they guaranteed the necessary conditions for the collective and democratic participation of members in decisions about the activities carried out. It is worth noting that, in addition to these meetings, open to the participation of all members, self-management also took place in the daily routine of each specific action. For example, the participants in the music workshop were free to decide on issues related to its operationalization, without depending on the general debate of the association.

In addition to the meetings developed with the aim of enabling the self-management of the associations, we identified five meetings held between Enloucrescer, ITCP/FURB and members of the municipal mental health management of Blumenau. The purpose of these meetings is to expand and strengthen psychosocial rehabilitation actions, whether those developed by the association or those carried out by the city's mental health services. In addition, Enloucrescer and ITCP/FURB also participated in two meetings with the Mental Health and Solidarity Economy Network of São Paulo, with the aim of exchanging experiences and strengthening the role of users in carrying out psychosocial rehabilitation actions. These dialogues, which were not limited to the exercise of self-management of the groups, highlighted the network nature of these groups, as well as their action as political actors, as previously mentioned.

3.2 Training and production activities

Regarding training and production activities, we identified a set of actions that included: 30 ceramics workshops, eight digital inclusion workshops, 104 music workshops, eight recycled paper workshops, and 107 theater workshops. Most of these were held weekly. The number of participants varied according to the profile of each one (availability of physical space and/or materials, objectives, etc.) and included between five and 15 participants per workshop. In addition to the members, all actions had the presence of at least two people responsible for their execution. In some cases, those responsible for the activity could be professionals from the city's mental health service or a professor from ITCP/FURB with the support of a student or a professional from the mental health service. The only exception was the digital inclusion workshop, which was the responsibility of an ITCP/FURB scholarship holder.

It is interesting to note the number and variety of workshops developed by the associations. The number of activities reveals that, as a rule, there was an intention to generate an ongoing action, capable of training members for a specific practice. Regarding the thematic diversity of the workshops, we noticed that their proposal was linked to psychosocial rehabilitation. According to Pitta (2016), this perspective is linked to the increase in affective, symbolic and material contractuality to enable the autonomy of people with mental suffering to live in the community. For example, ceramics and recycled paper workshops generate the sale of products and, thus, increase the income of members and contribute to an increase in contractuality that is not only material, but also symbolic and affective. This happens to the extent that the expansion of access to financial resources can allow members to choose how to manage these resources (whether to go on an outing, buy something for themselves or someone else, pay a debt, etc.).

It is important to highlight that the reflection on income generation linked to psychosocial rehabilitation activities cannot be restricted to a debate on the amount of economic resources generated by such actions. Following Sayeg (2017), we understand that income generation in psychosocial rehabilitation actions faces at least two challenges: generating enough income to enable the subject to play an active role in his/her life and, at the same time, ensuring financial sustainability for the maintenance of the group's actions, preserving their meaning as work.

Still in relation to training and production activities, it is important to recognize that the workshops developed are strongly linked to the Freirean perspective, in the sense that technical knowledge is inseparable from aesthetic experience and ethics. It is in this sense that the author states that “[...] transforming the educational experience into pure technical training is to belittle what is fundamentally human in the educational exercise: its formative character” (Freire, 2009, p. 33). This is because, as Freire (2009) considers, learning must be a process that encourages the learner to become increasingly creative, and the process of becoming a creator is inextricably linked to a transformative stance towards oneself, others and the world.

3.3 Sharing and dissemination actions

Regarding the actions to share and publicize activities and productions, we identified a set of actions that included: two musical presentations; five theater presentations; one film debate; three events for the Anti-Manicomial Fight Day; five editions of the Enloucrescer newspaper; 10 radio programs “Mentes e vertentes”; and eight discussion groups. Once again, plurality caught our attention as a central characteristic of these actions.

We identified a diversity of subjects involved (users, professionals and managers of mental health services; university students and professors; local artists and the community in general), formats of actions (artistic presentations, events, debates, printed and broadcast communication), spaces/contexts in which the actions were carried out (linked to the areas of health, education and culture) and themes addressed (special focus on issues linked to the social movements of Psychiatric Reform, Solidarity Economy and Popular Education).

Regarding the power of sharing/dissemination actions, we focused our attention on the performances of the theater group “Estações da vida”. This group is organized by Enloucrescer, coordinated by a theater professor affiliated with ITCP/FURB, and has the support of professionals from the mental health services of Blumenau and scholarship holders affiliated with ITCP/FURB. It is important to emphasize that the group operates from a perspective that dialogues with the Theater of the Oppressed, the Solidarity Economy, and Psychiatric Reform, since it carries out a self-managed and emancipatory theater practice that seeks to empower people with mental suffering and transform the oppressive social imaginary regarding mental illness. This became evident when we identified that the group's actions contemplated the involvement of its members in all spheres of the group's activity, from the conception, adaptation, and creation of the elements that made up the theater pieces to the selection of the spaces for the presentation.

We emphasize that understanding the actions of this theater group involves understanding the plurality of actions (workshops, production of theater plays, composition of characters and presentations), subjects (users and professionals of mental health

services, professors and university students) and contexts (local community, university, events linked to mental health and the Solidarity Economy). Based on this recognition, we understand that the benefits arising from this experience affect its members, the university context and the local community, enabling an expansion of cultural experiences, greater visibility for the Enloucrescer association and for the debate on Psychiatric Reform, free access to cultural assets, professional qualification for university students, professors and professionals of mental health services, strengthening of university extension in its relationship with the local community and transformation of the social imaginary regarding madness.

It is important to highlight that, in order to understand the actions of this theater group, it is necessary to recognize that its activities are integrated with the other actions developed by Enloucrescer. This, in turn, implies recognizing that artistic-cultural practices go beyond the therapeutic perspective on the relationship between art and madness and open up possibilities for breaking the discourse of inferiority and incapacity attributed to people with mental suffering. In other words, art ceases to be a therapeutic or occupational resource and is taken in its political dimension and as a creative activity that allows for social transformation and the emancipation of subjects and social groups.

For example, the political intentionality of the theater group's action can be seen in the play A menina que buscava o sol [The Girl Who Searched for the Sun]. This play was an adaptation of a text by Maria Helena Kuhner, which deals with a girl who lived in a context of oppression and misunderstanding and who sought the sun to feel happy. In this search, she found help from other people and came to understand that the sun is solidarity. In this sense, based on the records present in the reports, it is possible to see that the play problematized themes of oppression, social isolation and psychological suffering intertwined with the idea of overcoming them through solidarity.

Just like the play The Girl Who Searched for the Sun, the other artistic-cultural actions carried out in the extension projects analyzed can be understood in relation to the contributions of Amarante and ^{Torre (2018)}. For the authors, artistic-cultural experiences are one of the greatest innovations of the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform carried out in recent decades. According to Amarante and Torre (2018), they allow for a broader understanding of the Psychiatric Reform, not reducing it to a reformulation of services and reorganization of the medical-psychological and assistance care network. Far from it: what they provide is to reveal the need for actions in the sociocultural dimension to transform the social imaginary and promote new ways of life in society.

^{Torre (2018)} also contributes to this debate by considering that artistic-cultural experiences in the field of psychosocial care have created innovative ways of relating to madness, as subjects are no longer understood based on psychiatric diagnosis, but rather through the possibilities of inventing new ways of life that produce citizenship, social circulation, and the expansion of knowledge and freedom. In these terms, we consider that artistic-cultural actions are powerful in collaborating with Basaglia's proposal – an Italian psychiatrist who is one of the main references for the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform – of placing mental illness in parentheses..

According to Amarante (2015), placing mental illness in parentheses does not mean denying the existence of mental illness. It is an epistemological rupture that aims to recognize the subject and their potential and move their condition of suffering to the background. Here, once again, it is possible to perceive the potential of the interface between Psychiatric Reform and Popular Education, since, to place mental illness in parentheses, it is necessary to “[...] relearn the beauty of exchange [...]” (Freire, 2022a, p. 109). In other words, if, for Freire (2022a), popular education requires a liberating praxis that is related to the ability to relearn the beauty of exchange and reconstruction of oneself and the world mediated by the other, for Pitta (2016, p. 11) psychosocial rehabilitation is a democratic and collective praxis that respects singularity and aims at the liberation of subjects, because “[...] freedom is therapeutic”

Furthermore, ^{Gohn's (2011)} contributions also help us understand the various learning processes that occur in social movements, such as: practical, theoretical, instrumental, political, cultural, linguistic, economic, symbolic, social, cognitive, reflective and ethical. In the actions of Enloucrescer and Aufasam Recomeçar, for example, we identified learning processes related especially to: practices related to organizational and participatory processes; theoretical appropriation of concepts such as solidarity economy, psychiatric reform, mental health, anti-manicomial fight and psychosocial rehabilitation; understanding of the role of the state and its responsibilities in guaranteeing rights; identity; group work; organization and management of time, space and monetary values, etc.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that some of the actions of these extension projects were intensely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, especially between 2020 and 2021. During this period, all project actions followed the isolation and/or social distancing guidelines necessary to minimize the spread of the coronavirus. For example, the theater group's activities were suspended during the initial period of the pandemic and gradually resumed, first in a virtual format, with individual video calls mediated by a phone app, the objective of which was to direct exercises and character composition tasks; later, in-person meetings were held adapted to avoid physical contact between group members. In the end, theater activities resumed normally. Among the records made in the reports, it was possible to see that, even in the face of the significant difficulties imposed by the pandemic, the project actions were able to be developed with quality, since the perspective of collective and self-managed action of the groups made it possible for responsibilities to be shared and decisions to respect the possibilities and conditions of the group members.