Speech therapy features and demands of adult patients with mental disorders and institutionalized in a Center for Integral Health of Sao Paulo*

Abstract

Purpose: To characterize the speech therapy interventions to adult patients with mental disorders and institutionalized at the Center for Comprehensive Health Care of Santa Rita do Passa Quatro (CAISSR), where this study was conducted. Method: This is a retrospective study, quantitative and descriptive, which analyzed medical records of 106 subjects of both sexes, mean age 62 years, served individually in the Department of Speech-SR CAIS. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics. Results: The results show that residents referred to the speech (25% of total residents CAIS) are mostly elderly and are asylum seekers for a longer period. Most of the subjects who received individual attention in speech pathology (58.5%) were treated in the specialty language. The second most frequent category was Orofacial Motricity + Language (30.2%). Twenty-two (20.8%) of individuals who had received individual attention presented changes in communication also because of hearing problems. Therefore, most of the complaints and speech therapy circled around changes in communication and language of the residents attended by the institution. Conclusions: The significant number of patients that, by decision of the mental health team CAIS-SR, were attended by the speech therapy and the results point to the relevance of speech therapy in mental health equipment. But, it is suggested that for such, this work takes the interdisciplinary nature and complexity of public policies and current practices in the field of mental health, in order to offer effective and compatible contributions to the contemporary scene.