Convivial Group and Mental Health: user’s perspective and the experience of Occupational Therapy Course of Federal University of Paraná

Abstract

The current public policy on mental health direct their equipments and actions in orderto build the social inclusion of the target population. One of the fruitful devices in this context is theconvivial groups. With the intention to invest in the social inclusion of the users, a convivial group hasbeen created through a partnership between the course of Occupational Therapy of the Federal Universityof Parana and Arnaldo Gilberti Association, located in city of Curitiba. In order to present a three yearsexperience report, an qualitative-exploratory field research has been conducted in 2011. As techniquefor data collection, unstructured interviews were used on 11 individuals of the group. It was observedthe importance of the device to provide encounters, thereby increasing the social support network of theusers and their relationship with their territory. As problems for participation in the group, it could be seenthe lack of family support and a still present fragility to conquer the group’s autonomy. It’s underlined,however, the need for close surveillance of the group by professionals as well as the continuity of theintervention as strategies to effectively provide social inclusion to the users of mental health services.