Social network and attention to the people with mental problems: new challenge for the mental health services

Abstract

This article is based on the results of the research project "Rede Social e Reabilitação: "RE" Descobrindo o Cotidiano de 3 usuários do Núcleo de Atenção Psicossocial II do Município de Santo André". It had as objective to know and to describe the social network of three people with severe mental problems, to identify forms of interaction and people necessities and, to compare and analyze the studied citizens' network. The citizens' social network had been apprehended from the accompaniment, participant observation, daily service experience and the interviews with familiar. The study confirmed data from literature that point to the fragility of the social networks of people with severe upheavals mental and the importance of the adoption of social networks activation strategies in the development context of care projects. It also showed the decurrently risks of the therapeutically proposals that when restricting the citizen for an extended time in the service of mental health results for feeding the social networks circuit of isolation and embitterment. In this context, the study contributes to put in doubt the role of the identified substitutes services of mental health with the orientation of the psychosocial rehabilitation.