The Return Home Program and its daily repercussions:access to income and the intersections of existential territories in community life

Abstract

This article analyzes the repercussions of the Return Home Program – aBrazilian cash transfer program – on the lives of people discharged from psychiatrichospitals. Our aim was to ascertain the program’s repercussions on the lives of itsbeneficiaries, particularly with respect to the implications of accessing an income fortheir everyday life, in addition to highlighting some of the intersections between their lifecontexts and existential territories: sexuality, gender, aging, and forms of urban violence.An evaluative study was carried out between 2017 and 2018 that focused on the lifeitineraries of 20 people. Consequently, we were able to observe that access to incomewas a fundamental aspect of the experience of living outside the hospital, with regardsto the exercise of material exchanges and forays into the community. We discuss thechallenges of guaranteeing assisted support to beneficiaries on a contractual basis and theevaluation of psychosocial rehabilitation processes, linked to the intersections that markways of living