Fernando de Souza Silva

Repercussion of Segregation in the Lives of Children Separated by Leprosy

Introduction: Leprosy is a disease that carried the characteristic of incurable and disfiguring for years, causing the social segregation of patients before the family and society. Objective: To describe the repercussion of segregation in the lives of children separated by leprosy who lived in Oswaldo Cruz School. Method: This is an exploratory, descriptive study, with a qualitative approach and with the methodological framework Oral History of Life. Results: The sample consisted of 52 family members of former patients segregated in Hospital Sao Francisco of Assis Cologne Hospital, registered in the Reintegration Movement of People Affected by Leprosy in RN (MORHAN Potiguar). The network was structured from a zero point and consists of five collaborators. Data were collected through individual interviews, and through an instrument with open questions, which were recorded and transcribed. The texts were submitted to thematic content analysis, emerging four themes: broken ties; stigmatized; primary school; leprosy or Hansens disease. Conclusion: It was evidenced that isolation has influenced the lives of the study participants. The historical records lived in the past are still present in the collaborators memory and directly reflected in thinking about leprosy today.

Conhecimento sobre prevenção de incapacidades em um grupo de autocuidado em hanseníase

The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge acquired on prevention of disabilities in the control of hanseniasis by the participants in a self-care group in a reference hospital. This was a qualitative study, performed in a reference hospital in infectious diseases in Natal-RN, gathering 16 members of a self-care group in hanseniasis. The data were collected from September to November of 2012, through an open question and adopting the method of content analysis of Bardin to analyze and interpret the obtained answers. The following categories emerged from the findings: care in the prevention of ulcers and dressing; prevention of falls; and socio-economic rehabilitation. The results allowed the observation that the users’ participation in group meetings contributed significantly to the acquisition of knowledge about self-care practices.