Therapeutic practices in the informal net with emphasis on mental health:caregiver’s histories

Abstract

The growth of non-allopathic therapeutic practices in mental health is a differentiated way to take care of people suffering from mental disorder, since the official services of health not yet are enough to guarantee an attendance adjusted in this area. In this study, we objectify to know the caregivers’ histories of the informal health net that use non-allopathic practices in the mental health care. We use, for this, the method of oral history theme. Nine caregivers that work in the Women’s Holistic Center - AFYA, in the city of João Pessoa - PB, had been interviewed in the period between May and August of 2007. Amongst the main results, we observed that some of caretakers came to these practices due the lived deeply sufferings and to the necessity of learning and socialization. According these women, the majority of these people seeking these therapeutical practices when they do not find satisfactory answers in the formal health system. The caretakers noticed changes in the health status of people that using the practices and reported that they reconstruct their identities through the redemption of self-esteem. It should be noticed that non-allopathic practices are not an alternative to the biomedical model, which already have their own methods of diagnosis and treatment, but rather may be an axis of complementarity.