Saúde e doença mental no meio rural

• Autor(a) principal: Freitas, Humberto Barbosa de
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV
• Texto Completo: http://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/4128
• topic: Saúde mental; Representações sociais; Ruralidade; Mental health; Social representations; Rurality; CNPQ::CIENCIAS AGRARIAS::AGRONOMIA::EXTENSAO RURAL

The present research approaches subjects related to health and mental disorder in Ervália, located in Zona da Mata of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The study investigates the relationship between similarities and differences in the representations of madness among health care workers and patients and their families, who use the service NAPS (Núcleo de Atenção Psicossocial) in the town. This kind of study is important because social representations create expectations and lead to practices of stigmatization and treatment of mental diseases. The following methodological procedures were accomplished: analysis of content of the patients files; interview with local historian and participant observation of the routine of NAPS. Thus, 660 files were analyzed, (regarding the period between February 2002 to March 2010) in which words and expressions that indicate social representations were identified. A social characterization of the users of NAPS was delineated: the majority were female patients (57,42%), established in rural areas, having a low level of education, and with the diagnosis of depression or anxiety. It was also verified that the social representations about the theme mental health and illness change among doctors and non-doctors, although not completely: they approach in the vague definition of normality but diverge in the understanding of abnormality and, partially, in what concerns treatment. As expected, the representations among non-doctors, registered by physicians, indicate certain characteristics: a classification of the symptoms out of the patterns of scientific language; great valuing of behaviors considered irrational; a lack of attention to nomenclature or rigid classification and more tolerance with the one considered mentally ill, despite their negative valorization. On the other hand, doctors seem to be more interested in symptoms and attach to a more strict classification of diseases. As for treatment, the research results indicate that both doctors and non-doctors representations converge as for the expectation of prescription of medicines, but they diverge about the access to the resources or benefits of INSS (WELFARE DEPARTMENT), longed for by non-doctors and rejected by doctors. Some suggestions are presented to improve NAPS as, for instance, organization of the users' data and the consideration by the physicians that the benefits of INSS are a right and a fundamental need of the patients.