[Social support in the family caregiver experience]

This is a qualitative and descriptive study aiming to know the experience of taking care of sick people in the context of homes, analyzing the implications of the social support in the physical and emotional health of the family caregiver. The data had been collected by means of the semi-structured interview with 18 family caregivers of people with chronic illnesses. The technique of the Collective subject discourse was used for the organization of the data. One evidenced that all the informers were of the feminine sex, with average age of 50 years and medium instructional level. They took care uninterruptedly of sick people predominating the mothers with sequel of stroke. They reported health complications related to the care carried through: back pain, hypertension, migraine and depression. The collective speeches are suggestive of the break of the social networks and of the scarcity of support, leading the person to reject the caregiver condition. The overload was characterized by the caregiver to face innumerable situations which he did not succeed to manage it.