Abordaje psicológico de los cuidadores informales de discapacidad: una mirada desde el análisis documental de la normatividad colombiana

Abstract

Introduction: The objective of this study was to synthesize the Colombian regulations on disability and informal caregiver care policies, with the aim of revealing the existing gaps in the legal field and proposing a psychological approach to informal caregivers with disabilities. Method: A thematic search was carried out in the MeSH thesaurus, taking as inclusion criteria studies that contemplate Colombian regulations on disability, and policies (national and international) on caregiver care, to evaluate the psychological, mental and physical impact suffered by caregivers of persons with disabilities, and the cultural constructions associated with gender, for a total of 43 documents.

Results: 36 documents on disability regulations were coded with the Atlas ti software. And 7 documents on care policies (national and international) were treated in Maxqda. In the documents analyzed, a gap was found in the theoretical and practical articulation of the regulations that exclude care for the informal caregiver. Finally, in order to recognize gender as a category associated with caregiving, a word cloud was created using Nvivo software. The elements to be considered in the psychological approach to informal caregivers with disabilities are presented.

Conclusions: it is necessary to propose new policies within the disability regulations that promote caregiver care, recognizing the caregiver as an essential member of the health system.

Keywords: Informal caregiving; Disability; Psychological approach; Normativity; Health system; Public policies; Mental health; Gender.