The object of this was intervention in the Brazilian Assisted Living Home Casa de Saúde Volta Redonda and their implications for psychiatric nursing. The historical sources are constituted of written and oral documents. The data was organized, categorized, and analyzed according to the historical method, with the support from habitus concepts and the field of Pierre Bourdieu, as well as literature on Brazilian psychiatric reform. The changes in Mental Health policies have required new practices and attitudes consonant with the psychiatric reform implementation process in that municipality, based on the pillar of inserting the psychiatric patient back into the community and reclaiming their citizenship. These measures were part of a broader partisan political project, with accumulated experience in other Brazilian municipalities. Nursing gained positions of power and visibility, able to ensure their participation in different decision-making arenas in the local field of psychiatric assistance.
Nursing; History of nursing; Psychiatric nursing