Daily care in the life of female relatives of children attended in a CAPSi in Santos

Abstract

Children’s mental health has gained notorious space in Brazilian and international research. It’s known that childcare, besides requiring certain specificities, requires a consolidated support network, and one of these caregivers is the family. In the care provided by the family, a process of feminization is noticed: mothers, grandmothers, sisters, or other family members are markedly more present in groups for family members offered by the CAPSi (Children’s Psychosocial Attention Center). This article presents some results of a scientific initiation research, whose objectives were to identify and understand which are the daily care practices performed by women family members, caregivers of children assisted in a CAPSi in the municipality of Santos and the support received inside and outside the service. The qualitative research used as technique in-depth interviews, with semi-structured script, carried out by telephone, for listening to these women, identified from the information given by professionals of the service. In the women’s reports, we identified native categories related to care: routine, normal, and support. These categories were mentioned by the women to define the daily care of the children. We noticed that the daily routine of care characterizes it as “normal” for these women, and is not considered a burden in their lives or even problematized.