Needs of patients with mental illness in a community context

Abstract

Taking into account the different circumstances that make up the community, it becomes a privileged context for the development of interventions in the field of health. It is expected that the person with mental illness, who is integrated in his community, develops skills that allow him an effective recovery, taking into account the importance of promoting recovery in this way. Knowing the perspectives of health professionals about the needs of these people is important for the development of intervention programs in the community and, thus, contribute to the promotion of recovery.

MATERIAL & METHODS This paper aims to explore and describe the perspective of health professionals on the needs of people with mental illness. It is a qualitative and exploratory study, based on symbolic interactionism. A convenience sample of 7 health professionals from different areas of training and intervention was used. We chose a semi-structured interview as a data collection instrument. Data analysis was performed using content analysis according to Blumer's assumptions.

RESULTS From the analysis of the narratives emerged four dimensions, which include subdimensions. In the Social Relations dimension, two sub-dimensions emerged: relationship with the family and relation with the environment; in the Disease dimension, five sub-dimensions were highlighted: therapeutic intervention with the family, therapeutic intervention with the person, therapeutic regimen, stigma and difficulties caused by the disease; in the Environment dimension, three sub-dimensions were distinguished: knowledge about resources in the community and accessibility, social integration and resources in the community; in the fourth dimension Health Services emerged three subdimensions: continuity of care, articulation between health services and communication between technicians / teams.

CONCLUSIONS These results allow a broad understanding of the perspectives of health professionals on the needs of the person with mental illness. We can conclude that these needs are related to the different domains of people's lives, the difficulties being demonstrated in terms of family dynamics, work environment and social relations, and the difficulties in adherence and management of the therapeutic regime are also highlighted, such as difficulties in accessing support networks such as health centers or other outreach, or the inability of people to mobilize means of access to such networks. These results constitute a contribution to the implementation of intervention programs, which should also take into account the needs expressed by the people themselves, which is being studied in a parallel study.