Recuperar y conservar al familiar: estrategias de los familiares cuidadores para hacer frente a las crisis de salud mental / To recuperate and preserve the relative: Family caregivers strategies to manage mental health crisis

Objetivo: Conocer y comprender las estrategias que llevan a cabo los familiares de personas con problemas mentales en las crisis de sus familiares enfermos. Diseño: Estudio cualitativo. Emplazamiento: Servicio de Salud Mental (SESCAM) y centros sociosanitarios de Castilla-La Mancha. Participantes: Veinticuatro familiares adultos que conviven y cuidan de un familiar que sufre crisis de salud mental; contactados a través de la dirección de salud del área y de una fundación socio sanitaria. Se seleccionaron con propósito y en bola de nieve. Método: Veintidós entrevistas semiestructuradas y analizadas según los procedimientos de teoría fundamentada constructivista desarrolladas entre enero del 2014 y febrero del 2016. El muestreo teórico guio la obtención de los datos que finalizó con la saturación de las categorías emergentes. Resultados: La persona con un problema mental durante las crisis se convierte en un ser extraño e inaccesible para los familiares. En esta situación los esfuerzos se dirigen a recuperar al familiar, a sacarlo de la sinrazón y a conservarlo en una normalidad cotidiana y construida para ellos. Gracias a esto el familiar enfermo está integrado en la vida familiar. Conclusiones: Los familiares cuidadores de personas con problemas mentales luchan por no perderles en las crisis y por conservar los vínculos familiares. Los profesionales de Atención Primaria deben dar importancia a estos vínculos pues determinan sus estrategias de cuidado durante una crisis y las estrategias para conservar al familiar

Aim: To know and understand the strategies carried out by the relatives of people with mental health problems in the care of their sick relatives. Design: Qualitative study. Setting: Mental Health Service (SESCAM) and Social Health Centres of Castilla-La Mancha region (Spain). Participants: Twenty-four adult family members who live and care for a family member who suffers a mental health crisis. The participants were contacted both through the health directorate of the area and a social health foundation. They were selected with purpose and by snowball sampling. Method: Twenty-two semi-structured were conducted and analysed according to the constructivist grounded theory procedures between January 2014 and February 2016. The theoretical sampling guided the obtaining of the data that ended with the saturation of the emerging categories. Results: A person with a mental problem during a crisis becomes a stranger and is inaccessible to family members. In this situation the efforts are aimed at the recovery of the relative, to take them out of the unreason and to keep them in a day-to-day normality constructed for them. Thanks to this, the ill relative is integrated into family life. Conclusions: Family caregivers of people with mental problems struggle not to lose them in a crisis and to maintain family ties. Primary care professionals must give importance to these links, because it determines their care strategies during a crisis and the strategies to conserve the family member

[To recuperate and preserve the relative: Family caregivers strategies to manage mental health crisis]. / Recuperar y conservar al familiar: estrategias de los familiares cuidadores para hacer frente a las crisis de salud mental.

AIM: To know and understand the strategies carried out by the relatives of people with mental health problems in the care of their sick relatives. DESIGN: Qualitative study SETTING: Mental Health Service (SESCAM) and Social Health Centres of Castilla-La Mancha region (Spain). PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-four adult family members who live and care for a family member who suffers a mental health crisis. The participants were contacted both through the health directorate of the area and a social health foundation. They were selected with purpose and by snowball sampling. METHOD: Twenty-two semi-structured were conducted and analysed according to the constructivist grounded theory procedures between January 2014 and February 2016. The theoretical sampling guided the obtaining of the data that ended with the saturation of the emerging categories. RESULTS: A person with a mental problem during a crisis becomes a stranger and is inaccessible to family members. In this situation the efforts are aimed at the recovery of the relative, to take them out of the unreason and to keep them in a day-to-day normality constructed for them. Thanks to this, the ill relative is integrated into family life. CONCLUSIONS: Family caregivers of people with mental problems struggle not to lose them in a crisis and to maintain family ties. Primary care professionals must give importance to these links, because it determines their care strategies during a crisis and the strategies to conserve the family member.