This event follows the “International Meeting of Babel: The Democratic Therapeutic Community in the World, today”. On that occasion, the dialogues between participants from different corners/parts of the world led to discover a theme of common interest to all; the difficulty or the possibility of creating and maintaining democracy within non-democratic systems and places.

In a historical period of great change, amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, democracy is a value that we cannot take for granted within both mental health services and society in general.

Many questions come to mind: what direction is democracy moving towards? What are the values that provide meaning to life within society and local therapeutic communities?

Today more than ever, in a global context where institutions appear rigid and often old fashioned; putting democracy at risk, therapeutic community culture and values, together with democratic participative practices can represent an opportunity, not only for therapeutic communities, the mental health and psychosocial services but also for global and local communities. Today more than ever, we would like to re-launch the importance of terms such as democracy, dialogue, group, participation, responsibility and conflict management.

These reflections, through a group dialogue between voices from different territories, shall drive the event on the 22nd March 2022.