"Thinking about living" Trajectories of Therapeutic Residential Services users

Abstract

This article is based on the results and discussions generated by the project "Thinking of living: trajectories of users of therapeutic residential services of the city of Santo André (SP)", that aimed to know the deinstitutionalization trajectories of users of residential services, identifying their major changes and needs from the viewpoint of users, technicians and caregivers. More specifically, we wanted to know the experience of users, since they left the psychiatric hospital so far in the residential service and their daily lives in these services. It aimed to identify the changes related to the gain of autonomy and social-relational networks, besides knowing the needs of users at the moment of the study. We developed: documental analysis, participant observation with field diary elaboration and 10 interviews with users, caregivers and superior level professionals responsible for the services. The interviews were typed and fully transcribed and submitted to content analysis. The project was approved by the Ethic Committee in Research of HC-FMUSP and obtained funding of FAPESP (process number: 05/59564-4). I was developed during the period of 2006 October and 2007 July.