Abstract
To capture and analyze the structure of homeless people's social representations about self-care. Research based on the theory of social representations, with 122 people in street situation. A semistructured questionnaire and free evocation technique were applied with the inducing words "caring for myself is". The evocations were processed by the software Evoc and Iramuteq, allowing to identify central and peripheral elements and the connection between them. For the group studied, "feeding oneself, personal hygiene, protecting oneself and visiting the doctor" are actions and attitudes that represent caring for themselves. In the streets, "feeding oneself" is an essential action for living/surviving that underpins the others. Despite behaviors based on the biomedical model, self-care was represented by extended actions to meet basic human needs. This study offers elements of reflection to rethink care practices developed by health professionals.
Highlights
The “people living in street situation” phenomenon is complex and increasingly common, requiring intra- and inter-sectoral actions with more effective and efficacious policies
This research study is based on the theory of social representations (TSR), whose focus is on the structural approach, called central core theory
For the average of the mean orders of evocations (MOE), we considered 2.9 on a scale of 1 to 5
Summary
The “people living in street situation” phenomenon is complex and increasingly common, requiring intra- and inter-sectoral actions with more effective and efficacious policies. The contexts in which homeless people (HP) fit in, the ways they live and are in the world, reveal diverse self-care practices. Addressing self-care by those who live on the streets implies bringing to the fore elements of an ontological action of the human being (care) and of a social, historical, global, multifaceted phenomenon with social, political and economic implications (people in street situation). The concept of care is a polysemic one, involving individual, social, (intra)subjective and cultural aspects, since it is a part of human existence. Self-care includes unique ways of being and living that involve diverse knowledge. In the face of this, common-sense knowledge, based on HP’s experiences, brings with it subjectivities revealed in the daily life of interrelations with the street and with the other, expressed in the ways of caring for oneself and survive. Common-sense knowledge is legitimate and important in social life, as it elucidates and enables cognitive processes and social interactions, and permits changes in attitude and/or position taking both individually and collectively[4]
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