Collective building of a leisure understanding in territorial mental health, by occupational therapists: a qualitative study

Abstract

Introduction: Leisure is considered an occupation present in studies, evaluations and interventions of occupational therapy. In Latin America, there are few works dedicated to building the understanding of professionals or their perceptions about leisure. There are even fewer studies that correlate the understanding of these professionals with occupational science on this occupation within the field of mental health. Objective: To know the understanding of leisure by occupational therapists working in the mental health of public services that substitute the asylum psychiatric model. Methodology: This research was qualitative, descriptive and exploratory, with a cross-sectional design. A focus group and thematic analysis of information arising from the process of collective construction of occupational therapists, working in public services with a territorial base of urgency in mental health, in the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, on their understandings regarding leisure were used. Results: Three categories emerged: (a) Leisure – pleasure; (b) Leisure – free choice; and (c) Leisure – transcendence of hardness. Conclusion: Leisure is an important occupation for occupational therapists working in mental health in the territory; may find resonance in practices that encourage contractuality and autonomy, especially when combined with the principles of occupational science of valuing human doing in its variable ways of experiencing it. It is believed that this research can help occupational therapists and occupation scientists in understanding contemporary leisure, in dialogue with care in the territory and anti-asylum positioning.