The residents’ perception about the Residential Therapeutic Services

satisfaction, freedom and new family

Abstract

The Residential Therapeutic Services (RTSs) are related to the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform and to the process of deinstitutionalization, and have the purpose of (re)integrate to the community people with mental disorders diagnoses, egresses from psychiatric clinics. This qualitative study aimed to analyze the residents’ perception about these services. For that, we conducted a semi-structured interviews with 31 residents of 11 RTSs in the inner of São Paulo state, semistructured interviews were filmed, fully transcribed and analized with thematic content analysis. The themes that have emerged refer to satisfaction, freedom and new family. Improvements were detected: in the quality of life, in the social networks expansion, in the strengthening of community life and in coping with mental disorder of these residents.