Reinternações de pacientes com transtornos mentais graves: o olhar dos familiares

Abstract

The care model for people with mental illness started to include the family as co-responsible for the treatment. However, many families do not feel prepared with and in psychological, physical or social conditions to care for their loved ones, often leading to hospital recurrences. The present study aimed to analyze the perception of family members regarding the hospital readmission of patients with severe mental disorder in a Psychiatric Hospital, developing an ethnographic research. Theoretical-methodological framework of Anthropology was used, seeking elements and social units that involve the studied group. The research was carried out at the Dr. Maia clinic, in the city of Campina Grande-PB, through interviews with relatives of inpatients, using in-depth interview techniques with semi-structured script and ethnographic observations. It was observed that family members relate the illness of their loved one to a cause, mostly attributed to traumatic factors and or losses. There is no understanding of the symptoms and the onset of the disease, leading to prejudice, restrictions on social inclusion and social exclusion of these people. The lack of understanding and coping with crises lead family members to seek help in other services of the Psychosocial Care Network ¿ RAPS. However, the search for a place of treatment for longer stays makes family members perceive the psychiatric hospital as a health reference, thus generating several hospitalizations in psychiatric hospitals. The participants mentioned that they found a way of relief, rest from the burden and care for the relative with mental illness during hospitalization. It was also noted that there is a resistance to receiving patients discharged home, as well as a difficulty to continue the care. Thus, it is necessary that mental health services offer health care to patients discharged from readmissions, given the family's fragility in dealing with the crisis of the mentally ill at home. Family members should be integrated into the health promotion interventions of the psychosocial care model. There is also the lack of integration and continued care of the services of the Psychosocial Care Network in view of the discharge of patients discharged from psychiatric hospitalizations.