o artigo começa por referir as clrcunstâncias práticas e o contexto teórico que inspiraram as linhas mestras de uma investigação-acção realizada em três escolas secundárias de Coimbra com o objectivo de induzir a mobilização das potencialidades de desenvolvimento cognitivo e a diminuição do insucesso escolar. No contexto da teoria relacional da motivação humana, o insucesso escolar não é concebido como provocado por «deficiências» dos alunos mas como a resultante da interacção de diversos factores de ordem pessoal, interpessoal e institucional. Nesta perspectiva, as actividades de investigação-acção não se centraram apenas no «diagnóstico» e «tratamento» dos alunos, mas procuraram também o empenhamento dos professores e dos pais. Os efeitos das actividades realizadas foram avaliados quer por intermédio do rendimento escolar dos alunos quer por intermédio de algumas provas psicológicas, designadamente o teste de Longeot utilizado nos grupos «experimentais» e nos grupos de «controlo». Os resultados obtidos revelam os· efeitos favoráveis das actividades integradas na investigação-acção

One of the main aims of this scoping selective review is to clarify the differences between expressive and creative writing in the mental health context, not only at a conceptual level but also regarding its therapeutic effects. The other one is to identify the more efficient ways to develop therapeutic creative writing programs for a clinical population. Considering these specific aims, we employed a selective review on the writing therapeutic literature. We found that, although expressive writing is clearly defined and its benefits on mental health empirically well established, creative writing lacks a consistent conceptualization in clinical settings. Similarly, we reported several studies focusing in the therapeutic benefits of poetry, but other writings genres receive much less attention and are even more insufficiently defined. Since some studies support the idea that giving a significant content to a text is more beneficial, and considering that writing creatively offers new perspectives and meanings to the information, we propose that the development of creative writing programs should be tried. Aiming to develop such programs in the future, we give some suggestions based on already studied expressive writing methods.

Recent changes in the psychiatric paradigm related to the deinstitutionalization process presuppose the development of services of community integration. Studies conducted in other countries show better results in psychosocial rehabilitation programs than treatment in psychiatric hospitals. However, in Portugal mental health services are not consistent with the state of the art in the area. In this sense, the main goal of this work is to know and to analyse an experience, which is unique for its characteristics, of psychosocial rehabilitation in the area of mental illness, in our region. This research is a case study and the unity of analysis is a Private Institution of Social Solidarity, the Association of Social Rehabilitation and Deinstitutionalization of Psychiatric Patients (ARSDOP), in which we have sought to describe its global functioning model and, more specifically, its work and residential rehabilitation models.