[Family, Through Mental Health and Sickness]

The following article arises from the study "Representaciones sociales en el campo de la salud mental" (Social Representations in the Mental Health Field), in which the objective was to address the social representations in the family context; concerning caring, as well as the burden it implies using a qualitative method. The corpus was built based on the analysis and interpretation gathered from families with mental illness members. There were 17 individual interviews, 13 group interviews and one family group of three generations, held regarding the clinical care of the family member. These interviews were held at three different hospitals in Bogota. The representation of "a family" constitutes the structuring of the meanings of family relationships that cope with mental illness built upon the social and historical life of its members. The three comprehensive categories were: a) Family in good times and bad times; b) mental illness in family interactions, and c) Care and burden. Socially speaking, mental illness can lead to dehumanization, in that it discriminates and stigmatizes, even within the family unit. Caring for a family member with mental illness comes about by hierarchical order, self assignation, and by institutionalization. This latter occurs due to lack of caregivers or because the family does not consider their home the best place to care for such a patient.