✳Our process · Santiago Atitlán

RECUPERA

A mental-health program built with the community — not for it. Four chapters, told with the people who made it possible.

The program

What RECUPERA is

RECUPERA is a family psychoeducation program for the holistic recovery of people with schizophrenia. It goes beyond symptom management: it seeks emotional, social, and community well-being.

Who it is forPeople diagnosed with schizophrenia, their families, and the community.

How it works

01
Engagement and integration

We obtain informed consent and prepare families to take part in the program.
02
Educational workshop

A two-day session on the fundamentals of schizophrenia, symptom management, relapse prevention, and peer support.
03
Educational sessions

Ten sessions on family communication, problem-solving, relapse prevention, and the use of community resources.

What we seek

Stronger family communication
Relapse prevention
Well-being and autonomy
Less burden and stigma
Stronger support networks

Our first steps

The beginnings of our learning

Listen before proposing.

Our work in Santiago Atitlán began with participatory research on depression, anxiety, and trauma. This process helped us better understand the community’s experiences and needs, and laid the groundwork for the later development of RECUPERA.

Participatory workshop with community members gathered to learn together — **Participatory workshops.** We learned alongside the community, not about it.

Participatory methods with materials on a table — **Local methods.** We used participatory methods to understand local experiences.

Understand the context

Drawing, conversation, and art-based activities helped us explore stories, emotions, and experiences that rarely fit into a survey.

Lake Atitlán with the mountains behind it

The lake is part of the community’s life, identity, and resources.
Santiago Atitlán · Lake Atitlán

Building RECUPERA

Recovery is built with the community

People with lived experience are the experts.

RECUPERA was built together with people with lived experience, families, community leaders, health providers, and local authorities. Through interviews and participatory workshops, we identified needs and designed solutions together.

A rooftop session where a participant holds an illustrated card while the team listens — **We listened before designing.** Families and people with lived experience guided every decision.

People working together on a community solution

Co-creation

The best solutions were not born in an office. They came from the dialogue between local knowledge and clinical evidence.

Science and community

Weaving knowledge

Where science and local knowledge meet.

We create spaces where science, lived experience, and community knowledge can meet. Through an exchange between researchers and the community, we build a broader understanding of mental health and explore responses that are more relevant and aligned with local realities.

A community visit to learn about local realities — **Community visits.** We came to know firsthand the realities people live.

Exchange

We learned from the community’s knowledge and practices, recognizing families as essential allies in recovery.

Learning from the community’s knowledge and practices — **Knowledge that counts.** We learned from the community’s knowledge and practices.

Mental-health specialists review the RECUPERA manual in a working session — **Expert review.** We reviewed RECUPERA with mental-health experts.

Strengthening RECUPERA

Preparing to accompany

Practice, receive feedback, adapt.

Before implementing RECUPERA, we strengthened our tools, skills, and materials through practice, feedback, supervision, and adaptation. This prepared us to accompany people from a more accessible, respectful, and culturally relevant perspective.