LEAVING A PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL: THE IMPACT OF THE “OUT-OF-THE-WALL” EXPERIENCE

• Main Authors: Maria Cecília Moraes Scatena, Zeyne Alves Pires Scherer, Karina Fonseca de Souza Leite, Juliana dos Santos Monteiro
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal do Paraná 2000-12-01
• Series: Cogitare Enfermagem
• Subjects: Mental health; Psychiatric hospital; Psychiatric nursing
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.5380/ce.v5i2.44887

One of the challenges to Mental Health in this new millenium is the deconstruction of traditional psychiatric hospitals, which will have to take into account the large number of people who still live in them. Currently, the City of Ribeirão Preto – SP has a diversified and consolidated care system characterized by substitutive services for the mental-hospital model, namely: the Psychosocial Care Center (NAPS), Psychosocial Care Center for Drug-Addicts (NAPS F), Regional Mental Health Outpatient Clinic (services provided by the City Administration); Psychiatric Emergency Unit, General Hospital’s Psychiatric Ward, Day-Hospital (services belonging to the University Hospital of the University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto Faculty of Medicine) in addition to the Protected Home Program. The latter has been developed since 1992 by a large psychiatric hospital in that city and seeks to re-include patients into the community. This study aims at discussing access to citizenship, which is the base of such program assisting a group of patients. By means of home visits, the experience of three female patients outside the walls of a mental hospital was followed. These three patients lived in one of the protected homes in the Program and, during the study, their difficulties concerning relationships as well as those related to coping with daily situations and re-hospitalizations were detected. By taking such findings as the object of our reflections, it was possible to conclude that such clients need some type of support which, Mental Health professionals can provide by being aware of the fact that they must re-consider o their intervention practice