Conversational Resources for the Expanded Clinic with Families in Mental Health

Abstract

Currently, the debate concerning mental care values the participation of family in treatment, and seeks for alternatives of psychosocial attention to relatives of those patients seen in the services. Adding to this debate the challenges regarding the approximation of any clinical practice to public health, the concept of expanded clinic arises. This concept associates the notion of subjectivity to the notion of citizenship, and emphasizes the importance of dealing with the singularity of each concrete situation as a part of contexts and social relationships. Considering family therapy as an option for this type of care, a literature review showed the existence of a gap between research and clinical practices in the field. Aligned to these concerns, there is a Program for Family Assistance in a mental health day service hospital, where sessions of family therapy are offered as part of treatment. In this context, this project aims to analyze the approximation of a practice of family therapy to the notion of expanded clinic in mental health care. Specifically, it aims to understand the process of meaning making in this practice, and to describe which aspects of this process are close to an expanded clinical practice. To accomplish these aims, the family therapy treatment offered as part of the families' activities in the institution will be studied for the cases of two to four families. Their sessions will be recorded in audio and fully transcribed. Auxiliary field notes will be taken. The analysis of meaning making through discursive practices will be carried out based on the contributions of the social constructionist movement in Psychology. This research may contribute to the elaboration of family therapy as a psychosocial resource for mental health care.