O processo de luto e as estratégias de enfrentamento da família com membros com deficiência física

Abstract

This is a qualitative research with a case study of the grieving process and coping strategies of a family whose member has got a congenital and progressive disability, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). This study addresses the mourning as a natural process and seeks to understand it like a phenomenon from the meanings constructed by each member of this researched family, the mother and children, for the type of disability installed and developed in their family life. The instrument used for collect of data was semi-structured and thematics interviews with each them. The interviews were individual and it was made in the family residence about one hour. The themes of them were about the youth and family disease's impact, what the strategies used by them to cope it and what aspects that contributed to promote or hinder the grieving such attitudes. The research results showed how is important to know some factors there are in the family system structure that contribute in the meaning constructing process of grief experience answered by the family, whose member has got some disability. The grieving process oscillates between loss and restoration coping which was described by the Process Model Dual of Shot and Strobe (1999, 2001a). These factors were raised in four categories: about the disease; the family; attitudes and beliefs; and future plans and life projects were built by the family for them future, emphasizing in each category importants subcategories more that determine of the grieving process was experienced by the searched family. This study reinforces the idea that the family can be the best place for a person to grow up and learn to construct more positive meanings for her life experiences, especially if these are not the expected standards