Collective-work community: familial characteristics and their social support net

Abstract

The housing deficit has taken families to organize themselves in working cooperative systems, building their own houses, thus appearing the “collective-work communities”. The study aimed at: investigating by means of genograms and ecomaps, individual and familial characteristics of the community members; describing the social support net of these families. The study was held during the year of 2002, with 07 families of a collectivework community located in the surroundings of Fortaleza – Ceará. The techniques used to collect the data were: unstructured interview and participative observation. By observing the families’ genograms and ecomaps, it was noticed that five (5) of the families were of the nuclear type and the others were of the extend one. Six (6) of them were Catholics and one (1) was Protestant. Three (3) of the families had income from one of the members’ retirement earnings; one (1) of them had no income at all. The members of the third generation were studying, except one that quit studying to take care of a newborn baby. It is concluded that the strategy of building the genogram and ecomap along with the family members revealed to be efficient in creating/straightening the link with the nurse, besides contributing for getting a conscience related to the existing familial and communitarian support net.