The institutionalisation of madness

This study aims to investigate the meaning produced by mental health users in relation to the condition of being institutionalised in a hospital using the Brazilian Mental Health Policy as a reference base. The results show that the perception of mental disorder has its own characteristics for each participant but shares the same idea: that mental disorder is considered a complex bad and painful condition for those who experience it. Long stays in hospital on the other hand have several meanings: imprisonment idleness curing addiction and belonging to the institution as they see the hospital as a resource they can count on in the absence of their families but they make it clear that they don't want to live in that environment for long. We found that a large proportion of institutionalised people have a mental disorder but these are complaints and symptoms that do not justify prolonged hospitalisation not least because they are all being discharged and this is exclusively a political and social issue.