Vivências de familiares que cuidam de pessoas com doença crônica em domicílio

Abstract

Chronic diseases may be caused by multiple factors and, although medical treatments evolve, the increased incidence of these diseases is gradual, be it nationally or internationally. Aiming the continuity of care outside of a hospital setting directed towards the population suffering from chronic diseases, the Service of Home Care (SAD) started in Brazil in the 60’s and it is defined by a set of health promoting actions offered at the house of the patient. Even If the patient is the central point of the rehabilitation made available by SAD, the relatives have a very important relevance in this process as they are responsible for the care of the patient. The general goal of this dissertation, divided in two studies, was to comprehend the meanings of caring to relatives who care for their family members at home. The goal of Study 1 was to comprehend how the family caregiver deals with the process of caring for a chronically ill person. Study 2 had as its goal to identify and describe the perceptions of the caregiver about the operation and efficiency of SAD. They are exploratory, transversal and descriptive, of qualitative approach. For the data collection, were included caregivers that watch over family member patients, aged between 18 and 59, that are monitored by SAD. Ten people, all female, aged between 28 and 66, and assisted by SAD participated of this research. At data collection, the caregivers, seeing themselves in front of this process of caregiving immersion, reported feelings of angst, fear, insecurity, impotence and isolation. They expressed that SAD is able to assist them in the orientation of routine caring of the patient, however, they also reported a turbulent relation with SAD’s professional team due to the lack of support and qualified assistance. At the data analysis it was possible to realize that the caregiver is being viewed and treated only as simply someone who executes the procedures, having the obligation to attend unilaterally what is prescribed by the SAD team. As was observed, this situation creates tension and the caregivers possess no such space for questionings, which leads to the realization that the home care being offered by SAD is more in line with the assumption of the biomedical model of health care, as the SAD professionals act considering the symptomatology of the patient with NCD. In this aspect, aiming to better the environment for caring, a good partnership between the health team and the caregiver is paramount, as it’s important that the SAD professionals don’t just guide and supervise the execution of the caring procedures, but that they offer support, monitoring and hear the demands, considering the moment experienced by the family member. Stands out the importance of turning the attention to the caregivers, aiming to analyze physical, emotional and social barriers involved in the act of caring, as the family, presented in this study as the main agent of care and protection, also need to be taken care of.