Family of people with a mental disorder and needs in psychiatric care

Abstract

We aimed to learn about the needs of the family which provides care to a person with a mental disorder in the current model of health care. This is a qualitative study conducted in the municipalities of three regional health units in the state of Paraná, using data collection with thirty-two families. Data were analyzed by means of indicators. The results show gaps in the mental health services in relation to the care provided to people with a mental illness and their families with regard to the need for: adaptation after diagnosis of the pathology, family counseling, treatment compliance, hospitalization, financial assistance, transportation assistance, reintegration into society, inclusion in outpatient services after hospitalization, and the bond between professionals and people assisted. We conclude that these requirements need to be explored by mental health network professionals as to the possibility and implementation of deinstitutionalized, integral and decisive assistance to the person with a mental illness and his/her family.

Percepção dos familiares acerca do grupo de apoio realizado em uma unidade de internação psiquiátrica

“…The Brazilian Psychiatric Reform opened space for new ways to consider and think about the knowledge and practices of health professionals who act in the mental health network services. These considerations allowed for professionals to see other ways to care for people with mental disorders, understanding family as something essential in this process (1) .…”

“…The task of caring for and living with someone under psychic suffering can be very demanding, especially in moments of crisis, which makes it necessary to train family members and caretakers to manage these critical moments. Therefore, support groups can act as spaces for health education or be psychoeducational, teaching these families ways to manage, while also being a space for them to externalize their feelings about subjective and objective burdens that living with the ill patient entails (1) .…”

“…The Psychiatric Reform was a long and complex process of redirection of the mental health assistance model. It questioned the asylum model, which was based on psychiatric hospitals, and advocated for care within the territory, social reinsertion and the maintenance of family ties (1)(2) .…”

Nursing Practice at a Psychiatric Emergency Service: Evaluation Using Fourth Generation Assessment

“…23 In view of the construction professionals, users and family formulated, the relevance of the nurses at the psychiatric emergency service needs to be acknowledged, as these professionals are perceived as fundamental to achieve quality in health, mainly in services that are considered emerging in the context of the Brazilian psychiatric reform, like in the case of the psychiatric emergency services at general hospitals.…”

Living With Mental Disorder in Childhood: Feelings and Reactions of the Family

“…7,17 The guilt shows to be one of the most visible marks in the lives of families affected by a mental disorder, making them look for errors they may have committed in the past, in the attempt to explain the appearance of the disorder. Thus, they look for a concrete explanation for a reality they consider unacceptable, looking for someone to blame for a fact to which guilt does not apply.…”