Nowadays, family care is a great challenge for Mental Health practice, which requires professionals to study and take a closer look at these social actors. This study, which is guided by a social constructionist and qualitative approach, aimed to get to know the meanings Family Health Program (FHP) professionals attribute to family members living with mentally-ill patients. Data were collected by means of the focus group technique, involving members from two FHP teams in Ilhéus/Bahia, Brazil. As a result, we describe the family members and their conceptual registers, as well as the following meanings: caring, motivating and suffering prejudice; powerless and lacking resources; producing abuse and unbalanced. It was observed that some of these meanings reinforce the community's exclusion of mental patients and their family members, while others oppose this discourse and are thus able to favor a closer approximation between these actors and the professionals, in view of a new practice that improves their living conditions.

This study aims to discuss the strategies used by the Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Family Health Programs, at a time when a close link is established between psychiatric and basic care. We depart from our own experience in the field and from a literature review, identifying the interfaces and challenges to be overcome with a view to transforming these social contexts into spaces for affective and material exchanges and for more creative and flexible knowledge and practices.

As oficinas terapêuticas e as cooperativas sociais, enquanto dispositivos da atual Política Nacional de Saúde Mental, objetivam se diferenciar das práticas antecessoras, práticas decorrentes da idéia de estabelecer o trabalho como um recurso terapêutico, conhecido como 'tratamento moral'. Neste contexto, entende-se que as oficinas, não se apresentam por si só uma forma inaugural de lidar com a loucura. A experiência do trabalho das oficinas e/ou cooperativas torna-se positiva quando uma de suas funções é também o de intervir no campo da cidadania. Assim, atuando no âmbito social, contribui como possibilidade de transformação da realidade atual no que diz respeito ao tratamento psiquiátrico.

No abstract

No abstract