Homeless people's social representations about self-care

ABSTRACT Objectives: To capture and analyze the structure of homeless people’s social representations about self-care. Methods: 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. Results: 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. Final considerations: 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.