Care in social policies from a comprehensive perspective: A proposal to conceptualize and address it based on community and psychosocial praxis.

Abstract

The literature establishes the importance of care in the context of situations leading to burnout. However, there are theoretical limitations that make it difficult to understand its role within the social area. The article presents a proposal to conceptualize and address care in social policies from a comprehensive perspective, based on the community praxis of psychosocial teams. Results came from evaluating a care intervention with 35 participants from three teams focused on homeless people and two teams that worked with relatives of prison inmates. Interviews and focus groups were held, which were then analyzed Grounded Theory methods. As for the questions "Who is being taken care of?" and "Who is in charge of providing care?," four instances were defined: Workers, teams, self-care, and joint care. The article discusses the scope and theoretical challenges of care, as well as the key role played by institutions in care in community-based professional praxis. In addition, the authors reflect on the importance of comprehensive care for community psychology in today's social interventions.