DYNAMICS OF FAMILY OPERATION AND DRUG USE: IMPLICATIONS IN PSYCHOSOCIAL CARE
families; drugs; public policy; care practices
Hegemonic conceptions about drugs, the social belongings of the families and the guidelines put by the public policies reverberate in the practices of care and in the way of conceiving the problems related to the use of drugs in the familiar context. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between the dynamics of family functioning and the modes of care related to drug use in a cartographic perspective. More specifically, it proposes to map the problems and types of resources that families make available, to discuss the different dynamics familiar in the relation with the use of drugs, and to propose, in the light of the schizoanalytic perspective, strategies to deal with problems related to the use of drugs by any of its members. Therefore, a qualitative study focused on the case of two families with different socioeconomic characteristics was carried out. To construct the data, individual and group open interviews were conducted, observation and recording in field diary from the meetings (on average 25) with each one. It was identified that the absence of adequate support in the psychosocial care network, especially in substitutive services, reduces the potential for autonomy and emancipation in the care practices operated by relatives. This factor focuses directly on the dynamics of family functioning that are organized around the support and mutual help among the relatives themselves, but that faced with the lack of options and the helplessness, they become fragile when searching for reductionist strategies, linked to excessive medicalization or social isolation. It is proposed that care strategies be distanced from generalizing and reductionist ways, but rather involve families in the construction of unique therapeutic projects that respect the specificities of the family contexts and that are thus constructive of more potent in the face of problems arising from drug use, especially focusing on the care not only of the person who uses drugs, but also of the family group as a whole.