Mortes anunciadas: implicações para o luto dos cuidadores familiares

Abstract

The epidemiological profile of population has been transformed in recent decades, promoting a progressive evolution of chronic degenerative diseases prevalence, which tend to trigger announced deaths. However, little is known about the bereavement process among relatives in such cases. The present study aims to understand the general course of bereavement process among family caregivers of patients who died by chronic diseases after home care. This is a qualitative study, based on the Dual Process Model. The saturation criterion was adopted to define the number of participants. Data collection involved the use of a semi-structured interview with the six participants. The material obtained was subjected to thematic content analysis. Thus, we organized two categories Women who spin: the connections that build the caregiver and Átropos and the weaver: the announced, the interdict and the art of wires consisting of a number of subcategories. In general, it was observed among the participants the predominance of typical loss-oriented coping strategies, a fact that tends to difficult the reorganization of life after the loss and the implementation of the oscillating movement that serves as a regulator of the bereavement process. However, new studies devoted to the subject are needed, especially to clarify the particularities of anticipatory bereavement on announced death.