Stategies of care of people living with mental disorder: health assistance of the family health program teams

Abstract

This is a descriptive study with a qualitative approach that aims to identify strategies of care adopted at home by family members of people living with mental disorder, and describe the health assistance offered by the Family Health Program teams. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 11 families assisted at a Health Center in Maringá-PR. Research was carried out from July 2006 to June 2007. From data analysis two thematic categories emerged: “Care strategies adopted by the families and their description to the health service”; and “The Health Team and the families of people living with mental disorder”. It was found that the cultural factor interferes in the way the family offer health care and when this is offered by the health service, it is both positively and negatively accepted by the patients. Hence, it was noticed that these families still do not feel prepared or structured enough to deal their family members with mental disorder at home. This reinforces the idea that health professionals need to care for these families acknowledging the fact that they are the foundation to any home care, ranging from the simplest to the most complicated one.