Therapeutic Residential Services in the city of Rio de Janeiro: an analysis of the structure and process of care

ABSTRACT This paper aims to analyze the structure and the process of care in the existing Therapeutic Residential Services for people with mental health problems in the city of Rio de Janeiro. This is a cross-sectional study focused on the collection of primary information through a structured instrument. The research was conducted in all facilities operating in December 2016. In Rio de Janeiro, Therapeutic Residences receive mainly long-stay patients from mental hospitals (94.3%), with a large number of vacancies in devices with a 24-hours daily presence of staff (63.8%). A significant part of dwellers had a low frequency in the care activities of the Psychosocial Care Centers (48.7%). The internal care in the residential facilities points to a model with strong interweaving between housing and the psychosocial rehabilitation actions. The low turnover of users shows a trend towards the establishment of services with long-term care, which should be taken into account in the maintenance and expansion of the program to plan effective services. The results show that grants to support deinstitutionalization, and mainly the income received from the Continuous Cash Benefit program are vital to the program’s sustainability.