Abstract
Objective: to analyze mental health in the face of visual impairment, identifying the stages of psychological distress in the encounter with the not seeing. Method: This is an exploratory study with a qualitative approach. Fifteen adults with visual impairment attended at a specialized ophthalmology ambulatory in a university hospital in the city of Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil were studied, from June to August 2015, through a semistructured interview. The speeches were analyzed based on the theory of mourning. Results: the results showed that the mental health of the visually impaired person is structured through a normative apparatus constituted of individual and social attributes dynamically constructed. These attributes are related to the constitution of stages of mourning, characterized by shock, denial, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The mental health of the visually impaired person contemplates the phases of normal mourning, established before the condition of visual loss, as structuring mode in a process of personal reconstruction, reflected in the ways of walking the life, proper from each one. Conclusion: With this study, it was possible to understand the ways of constitution and reconstitution of people in dealing with a new condition, the one of visual impairment, providing caregivers, family, and society with an ethical spirit and solidarity, more compliant and humane in the to deal with people with disabilities.
Highlights
Visual impairment affects 35 million people, equivalent to 18.8% of the brazilian population, or 76.8% of all disabilities [1]
According to the figures released by the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE) in the Annual Report on Social Information (RAIS) in 2015, only 39,580 of the total of 381,322 jobs for people with disabilities refer to people with visual impairment
One of the reasons is that the condition imposed by the absence of vision translates into a perceptive process that is reflected in the cognitive structuring and organization and constitution of the psychological subject, with a direct reflection on mental health [3]
Summary
Visual impairment affects 35 million people, equivalent to 18.8% of the brazilian population, or 76.8% of all disabilities [1]. The triggering of a process of emotional and psychological alteration that is characterized by adjustment disorder and depression [4], higher suicide rates and lower life expectancy are highlighted among the problems related to visual loss [5]. In this context, people who are blind because they have a sensory deficiency of the vision suffer limitations in their possibilities of apprehending the external world, interfering in their development and adaptation to the different everyday situations [3]. Loss of vision can lead to impairment of mental health, which predisposes to emotional losses, basic skills, professional activity and communication [6]
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