Psychiatric deinstitutionalization: From confinement to inhabiting in the city of Belo Horizonte

Abstract

This study is about the (re)construction of a house as a result of the Back Home Program. Twenty residents of a psychiatric hospital were followed by the researcher, a health care professional, during the deinstitutionalization process. He conducted an action research based on ethnographic observation improve their practice and observe the deinstitutionalization process as a whole. The study concludes that the (re)constructing of a house requires attentive listening and careful planning by the health professionals. Subjectivity of the people with mental disorders involved is to be considered, as they should be given the opportunity to actively participate in the process, in order to avoid distress and clinical destabilization at the end of it. It is also possible to conclude that the Back Home Program, as well as the psychiatric reform politics, both developed by Belo Horizonte municipality, have made possible the deinstitutionalization policy.