MENTAL HEALTH OF FAMILIES OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES: IMPACTS, CHALLENGES AND COPING STRATEGIES

Abstract

This article analyzes the mental health of families of people with disabilities, focusing on the impacts, challenges and coping strategies associated with continuous caregiving. It is a qualitative, exploratory and descriptive bibliographic study, developed from an undergraduate thesis and expanded with scientific literature, official documents and Brazilian legislation retrieved from SciELO, the Virtual Health Library and PubMed. Findings were organized into six thematic categories: disability and family reorganization; caregiver burden and mental health; gender and the division of care; financial and social impacts; stigma and isolation; and support networks and coping strategies. The literature indicates that the concentration of responsibilities on a single caregiver, usually a woman, reduced participation in paid work, care-related costs, isolation, stigma and barriers to services foster burden and psychological distress, and that intensive caregiving and lower income are associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms. Support networks and public policies emerge as modifiable factors. The mental health of family caregivers is therefore a public health and social protection issue, and strengthening primary health care, social assistance and community networks is essential to reduce burden: caring for caregivers is an integral part of an effective inclusion policy.