Use of drugs, families and care practices: public policy questions

The hegemonic conceptions about drugs, the social belongings of the families and the guidelines put by the public policies reverberate in the way of conceiving the problems related to the use of drugs and in the practices of care in the familiar context. The present study, carried out through the monitoring of two families of distinct socioeconomic conditions and who suffer from problems arising from the use of drugs by one of its members, proposes to discuss how public policies have impacted care practices and handling these situations. An average of 25 meetings were held with each of them. The data analyzed were obtained through open interviews, observation and field diary. Differentiated modes of understanding and coping with the problem were identified based on the social belonging of the families and that the lack of adequate support in the network, especially for substitutive services, reduces the possibilities for empowering and emancipating family care practices.