Abstract

DANTAS, Milena Amélia Franco  and  CHAVES, Antônio Marcos. Health in custody: guards' representations on the custodial hospital. Psicol. cienc. prof. [online]. 2007, vol.27, n.2, pp. 342-357. ISSN 1414-9893.

This paper discusses the social representations of the prisoners' guards who work at the Hospital de Custódia e Tratamento Psiquiátrico about the intern's mental health treatment in order to analyze the demands of practices and a health policy that takes into account the psychiatric reform goals and the Brazilian criminal law purposes. Ten guards were interviewed and questioned about the Hospital, the interns/patients, their roles at the institution and mental health in the institution. Their lines were analyzed based on the social representation theory and categorized according to the themathical analysis. As a result, we found that, despite of the maintenance of visions and beliefs in a dangerous madness and in its control, most of the interviewed produced discourses and practices more sensitive to the interns' condition. Moreover, in their view, health professionals didn't bring many changes to the Hospital, otherwise they think the improvement of actions in that area is essential.

Keywords : Madness; Mental health; Prisoners' guards; Social representations.

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