Abstract
In seeking to build new knowledge so as to transform patient service practices performed in the field of mental health, as laid down in the Psychiatric Reform guidelines, this study has set out to gather statements from professionals and residents of half-way houses providing therapy in order to understand what similarities and differences there are between them on various accommodation and care issues arising in this service. This is a qualitative research study, which collected data by means of systematic observation, a field log and semi-structured interviews, conducted with 10 professionals and 07 residents of the Serviço de Residências Terapêuticas (Half-way House Service) of the municipality of Campina Grande, Paraiba. The result was that the statements indicate that these community residences provide a quality service, which reflects a tendency towards humanization, and one which is offered in an intermediate space in which citizenship can be achieved by those being discharged from asylums. As to the activities of the professionals, the study observes that the work process has provided the team with a means to manage care in a way that is substantially different from the technician approach which occurs in hospitals. As to those suffering from mental disorders, they start to regain ownership of a space from which they have long been estranged, that is to say, their homes, how to live at home, and how to live in a city. They have surprised everyone by their ability to (re-)adapt to and (re-)gain the urban space.