Mental health services in the brazilian psychiatric reform from the family perspective: an integrative review

Abstract

Objective: investigating the contributions of national scientific researches on family knowledge about mental health services after the Brazilian psychiatric reform. Method: this is an Integrative Literature Review with simultaneous use of the descriptors "mental health" and "family", in the LILACS database, in the period from 2001 to 2013, selected 24 scientific articles. Results: the emerging themes were: "services capabilities in the context of the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform", "family participation" and "weaknesses faced in the execution of Brazilian Psychiatric Reform". Conclusion: families recognize the importance of substitute services in assisting their family member with mental disorder. On one side, we highlight several structural, organizational and political weaknesses of these services. The other, identify some successful strategies in Brazil, which demonstrated that the barriers found for the effectiveness of psychiatric reform can be overcome.