Abstract

SEVERO, Ana Kalliny de Souza et al. The experience of family members in mental health care. Arq. bras. psicol. [online]. 2007, vol.59, n.2, pp. 143-155. ISSN 1809-5267.

The study investigated the experience of family members with the mentally ill person. It focuses on the difficulties they experienced and the strategies used to confront them. We interviewed 121 family members of psychotropic users and/or individuals released from psychiatric hospitals that lived in the area of the Family Health Program in the Bom Pastor community, Natal, RN. The majority were parents, with the mother being the main caretaker. The difficulties identified by the families were lack of financial resources, the individual’s constant dependency for care, diffuse worries, and the fear of mental illness. Treatment was evaluated as beneficial, but not offering resolution. Emotional support was denoted as their participation in the care, and the psychotropic therapeutic resource predominated. We observed a discrepancy between the therapeutic action used and the actual needs of these groups, thereby suggesting the urgent adoption of strategies that include family members as co responsible agents in the therapeutic process.

Keywords : Family; Psychiatric madness; Psychiatric reform; Family Health Program.

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