Abstract

BUILES CORREA, María Victoria  and  BEDOYA HERNANDEZ, Mauricio. Care and self-care among families with a person suffering from bipolar disorder and belonging to the Psychoeducational Group of the Psychiatry Department of the University of Antioquia, Colombia. rev.colomb.psiquiatr. [online]. 2013, vol.42, n.1, pp.81-96. ISSN 0034-7450.

Objective: To analyze the families from the Psychoeducational Group of the Psychiatry Department of the University of Antioquia that have one member with bipolar disorder (BD) in order to identify their care-related practices. Method: A comprehensive research project using the phenomenological and hermeneutic method. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve families. The data obtained were analyzed using the Atlas ti qualitative software. Results: Two main categories emerged: 1. Care and family life course and 2. Care and self-care in relation to bipolar disorder. The first category manifiests itself through practices such as: Taking care of the diseased person by being physically present, providing physical or emotional support, or by transferring care-related actions to other family members. Two main perspectives could be identifed in the second category, namely: the caretaker's perspective and that of the person being taken care of. Two tendencies were found regarding the first one: taking care of others brings about transformations in the caretakers and taking care of others is tough. The second perspective has the same number of tendencies: self-care as poetics and taking care of oneself in order to go from the Diving Bell to the Butterfy. Conclusions: Taking care of others is a way of building humanity. Conducting research on care and self-care practices (i.e. the practices of both the caretaker and the person being taken care of) results in a more aesthetic way of providing care and a more aesthetic patient-caretaker dyad.

Keywords : Family; care; self-care; bipolar affective disorder.

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