Mental disorder and psychosocial rehabilitation: Representations of Families

The study investigated family members' representations of the psychosocial rehabilitation of people with severe and persistent mental disorders, based on their daily experiences at home and in mental health substitute services. The interviewees were family members of family therapy groups at Psychosocial Care Centers (CAPS) in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. The findings were collected through semi-structured interviews, observation, and field diary entries and submitted to Discourse Analysis, based on Dialectical Historical Materialism. The results revealed conflicts and contradictions and their implications for healthcare practices, including the predominance of stigmatizing conceptions about mental disorders that influence the way families organize their daily lives, the compromise of interpersonal relationships, expectations of cure as a return to normality, and limited perspectives on the rehabilitation and social inclusion of people with mental disorders in the social and family spheres.