This article seeks to demonstrate the importance of social network analysis in order to understand the social and clinical trajectories of people with mental illnesses, and also to apprehend the potential and constraints of said networks for caregiving in a context of deinstitutionalization of mental disease. Based on the life stories of twenty people with mental illnesses and seven cases studies within this group in Portugal, the investigation identified the knots and ties of their social networks, mapping actors and types of support available. The article reveals the vitality and response of family networks, yet it also reveals the material and emotional difficulties, the fragility of family-provided care and the limitations to the social inclusion of people with mental illness.
mental illness; social networks; de-institutionalization; caregiving; family