Daily care of people with mental disorders: family representations

Abstract

The study was delineated in a qualitative way. The aim was to find out the family representation on caring of people with mental disorder in quotidian life.The four (4) Psychosocial Attention Centers, located in São Paulo City/Brazil, were the scenery and focused on the research. The chosen subjects were twenty-two (22) care takers who participated on therapeutic groups of developed families, systematically, in these institutions and those who lived with the patient in the same household. The approach of the subjects respected in the ethic principles of participation in the researches by means of signing the free-will consent term, explained and approved by the Ethic and Research Committee of the Municipal Office of Health of São Paulo City. The data were collected on the period from June to August 2007 through semi-structured interviews and subjected on analyses of discourse with the prop on the materialism historic-dialectic referential, making possible the emergence following theme: Caring of people with mental disorder in quotidian life: families's representations.To the families, looking of people with mental disorder on daily demands on time and dedication and facing the lack of a social support net, it represents emotional overload and financial additional, resulting in divesting and resignation of life projects.