SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE DRUG USER FOR THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: THE IMPLICATIONS FOR CARE

Objective: to reflect on the social representations of psychoactive drug users for the Catholic Church. Method: this is a qualitative, descriptive, reflective study. Inclusion criteria were based on subjects over the age of 18 and who have been attending the religious group for at least six months, excluding participants who did not meet these criteria. The Social Representations Theory was adopted as a theoretical framework and the Free Word Association Test as a data collection instrument. Results: The final sample of the study was composed of 100 participants, of which 34 were female and 66 were male. It was noticed, regarding the level of education, that most had completed high school (39 participants) and, regarding the age group, 30 were between 20 and 30 years old and 26, between 31 and 40 years old. Conclusion: the Catholic religion with the highest number of believers in Brazil is pointed out, thus, understanding its representation regarding the user of psychoactive drugs aims to directly collaborate in the construction of tools capable of enhancing the treatment offered for these users not only in the therapeutic communities, but also in the Unified Health System, considering that today it is admitted that the human being is biopsychosocial-spiritual.