Cordel: uma forma de expressão, comunicação e reflexão em saúde mental utilizada pelo terapeuta ocupacional

Abstract

The Psychiatric Reform and the Anti-Asylum Struggle brought advances and changes to the care of users with mental health problems. The care settings changed from long-term care facilities to extramural services. The family, which was previously the archive of care, became the main caregiver. Thus, there are many challenges faced by the family in ensuring the treatment of the user and also the reception for their own anxieties and difficulties. Occupational therapy is one of the forms of care for users and their caregivers and aims to promote mental health, using different activities that allow for better reception and space for expression. The objective of this research is to report the experiences of caregivers of users with mental health problems participating in an occupational therapy group using Cordel as a resource. The methodology used is qualitative. Through the interventions, it was possible to perceive that the process of mental aging brings about changes throughout the family nucleus, but that the main caregiver is the one who suffers the consequences the most and, in most cases, has no one to share them with. Therefore, the importance of specific groups for caregivers, who daily suffer the consequences of the overload of this care, is clear, where meetings are a means of welcoming and listening, signaling that gaps in mental health care intervene in the mental health of the user, but also, of the caregiver, offering listening, welcoming and guidance so that they can offer the necessary care to users.