The present study has as objective to identify the burden, experienced by the family member in charge of taking care of his relative, who is a user of a small town ‘Psychosocial Care Center’, located in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. A semi-structured questionnaire was used, in order to obtain a characterization of the family members, based on both, their life story and other topics related to the patient’s psychological illness. The interviews were carried out with 9 family members, from 28 to 80 years old, being most of them the patients’ mothers. The data were analyzed by using a qualitative analysis, thus forming theme categories that indicated the presence of an emotional, practical and financial overload to the family member in charge of the patient’s daily care. The study emphasizes the need for a support group, mainly during crisis. It also points out the advanced age of the caretakers, as an aspect to be considered by the teams that work in the mental health field, in the view of the Brazilian public policy, which open the possibility of looking after the patient with mental disorders within his social and familiar context.
Caregivers; family; mental illness