Abstract

CARAVACA-MORERA, Jaime Alonso  and  PADILHA, Maria Itayra. BETWEEN BATTLES AND ROCKS: LIFE STORIES OF HOMELESS CRACK USERS. Hacia promoc. Salud [online]. 2015, vol.20, n.1, pp.49-66. ISSN 0121-7577.  https://doi.org/10.17151/hpsal.2015.20.1.4.

Objective: To describe the everyday experiences of homeless people and the meanings they give crack Materials and Methods: Qualitative, descriptive and exploratory research with a socio-historical approach. Data collection was conducted using direct interviews with 20 participants carried out from February to April 2013 in the main smoking areas in the city of Florinopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil. Sociologist Erving Goffman's Stigma Theory was used as theoretical framework and life stories were used as the technique to collect data . Later data was analyzed using Bardin's content analysis from which two categories emerged: "Life on the street: between battles and survival" and "Crack: the curse that fascinates". Results: The results highlight that the street was conceived as an urban space, fleeting, full of struggles, stigmas and symbolic freedom where the main task is related to survival. With regard to crack, this had a dichotomous meaning: life versus death. Conclusions: The multifactorial aspect of the phenomena of addition to crack and the living on the streets must be seen under the execution of interdisciplinary and woth no stigmatization answers which take into consideration the different dimension immerse in their personal, physical, psychological , social, economical, family and legal conceptions.

Keywords : Stories of life; crack; homeless; nursing; public health.

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