Families's experience concerning therapeutic care of people with mental disease in the psychiatric institutions

Abstract

This study was done in a qualitative way and the objective was to find out how families experienced the care given to people with mental disturbances in psychiatric institutions. The data used was collected from fragments of discourse of the families in semi-structured interviews and participant observation, and compiled in field diaries of research between 2001 and 2003, but was not considered an object of study. The key informers were the relatives of people with mental disturbances, patients from day-hospitals, psychiatric hospitals and a Psychosocial Care Center living in the city of Fortaleza, State of Ceará, Brazil. The data was analyzed by themes building the construction of the following themes: representing psychiatric institutions; the meaning of therapeutic practice and the insertion of families in the treatment project. The results showed that the lack of a pedagogic project for the families and therapeutic resources which consider the psychosocial needs of patients in substitute institutions, psychosocial center and day-hospital are factors that mean that the families choose the psychiatric hospital as one of the main modalities for mental health care.