THE PROCESS OF ELABORATION THE DIAGNOSIS OF MENTAL DISORDER BY FAMILY MEMBERS

Abstract

Introduction: mental disorders (MD) are classified as psychological/behavioral manifestations associated with some functional impairment, causing changes and producing losses in the individual's overall performance. The diagnosis of MD can disrupt family functioning, causing feelings of fear, sadness, misunderstanding, impotence, guilt and may even deny the existence of MD. Objectives: to describe the process of elaboration of the family when receiving the diagnosis of MD; compare the stages of family elaboration when receiving a diagnosis of MD with the stages of mourning; and to identify the possible professional interventions that can help family members to go through the process of preparing the diagnosis of MD in the best possible way. Method: we opted for a narrative review. The search for studies was carried out in BVS, LILACS, BDENF, SciELO and Periodicals CAPES. The following descriptors were used in the search: “mental disorder, diagnosis, family acceptance”, without temporal cut. Results: from the perspective of family members, there is an elaboration process when receiving the diagnosis of a person with MD in the family. This process is similar to the stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining/blame, depression and acceptance, proposed by Kubler-Ross. Conclusion: the phases of mourning will be crossed regardless of professional interventions, as they occur naturally, but despite this, due to the diagnosis of a person with MD being difficult for the family to elaborate, this situation highlights the need for professional interventions that accept the suffering presented by the family members.