Mental suffering in family daily life: a temporal journey according to Merleau-Ponty.
Patricia Anjos Lima de Carvalho, Vanessa Thamyris Carvalho Dos Santos, Marlene Gomes Terra and 3 others
PMID 38018623WHAT IT FOUND
Family members described absence, loneliness and exclusion, yet also autonomy and new belonging through dialogue.
Nurses can support families without assuming they always have love or closeness.
Key findings
01Family members described absence, loneliness, sadness and disappointment, while also recognizing possible independence and autonomy.
02Even when family members lived in the same city, descriptions showed not enough closeness to actively support the person using the service.
03Exclusion within the family coexisted with acceptance, trust, joy, friendship and belonging emerging through dialogue at the Psychosocial Care Center.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
It was a qualitative study of 10 families and 24 participants in one city, so it describes experiences, not whether family care improves outcomes. It privileged the speech of family members present in their homes during the Intersubjectivity Wheels, so some participants from phenomenological interviews were not heard in the collective context. The authors note that other social actors in different points of attention were not included and should be heard in future studies.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these themes as evidence that dialogic family visits help patients or families. The study describes what 24 family members said about their experiences, not whether this care helps them.