Envelhecer entre quatro paredes: uma experiência no Instituto Municipal de Assistência à Saúde Juliano Moreira

Abstract

This work is a qualitative research with ethnographic approach, carried out at Instituto Municipal de Assistência à Saúde Juliano Moreira, whose aim is to know the impact of the aging process in elder residents of a long-term mental institution, leading to a discussion about the concept of aging and the consequences of living in a mental asylum. In order to achieve it, sixteen users, aged sixty years old or more and affected by mental disorders, were selected according to their capability of establishing interaction and communication with the author. Their life stories accomplished for the main source of information to be obtained. Data were collected by participant observation and open, half-structured interviews, relying on medical files whenever necessary. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed between October 2002 and February 2003, and they were assorted into specific groups in order to make possible a better understanding. The analysis of data unraveled that the users have great difficulty to recognize their own aging process. They are able, though, to identify each other’s old age. According to their beliefs, old age is situated in the body, related to a vague perception of chronological age and the external aspects of the aging process. In a similar way, they show the same perception in relation to the institution, where changes on its external aspect are more felt and mentioned, in spite of the very important transformations that took place in there since their admission. Subjects seem to only register changes in their daily lives, not being aware of historical facts, political and administrative aspects of the institution, and even of how long they have been living there. This aspect constitutes a time lapse. Loss of the capability of getting oriented in time is due to a deculturation process which individuals use to go through when entering a total institution. Time, for them, would be a natural fact, not contained in watches and calendars. In their speeches, past time and present time intermingle without any ceremony, making their lives an everlasting present. Subjects experiment an overall satisfaction towards the institution and their most important expectation is to remain there for the rest of their lives.