Projet, handicap psychique, rétablissement : quelques repères pour l’accompagnement des personnes

For some twenty years now, the individual project and, more broadly, life's project, have informed the practices of caregivers and social workers within social and medico-social services. While project-based care has been the subject of considerable interest in the literature, we felt it would be useful to contribute to and clarify the meaning of these different concepts and the way in which projects influence the practice of social and mental health care. We also wanted to discuss more specifically the care of persons with mental disabilities. A psychiatric handicap may indeed appear to be an obstacle for the project methodology. However, these potential obstacles must be weighed against the prospects offered by the concept of recovery in mental health. Finally, we wanted to examine the ethical issues involved in caring for these persons, which seems to be justified by the fact that it enables those patients to achieve a “good life”, which also requires us to question the concept of autonomy.