Mental health how (re)constitutive tool in ways of living of visually impaired persons

Objective: to analyze mental health in the face of visual impairment, identifying the stages of psychological distress in the encounter with the not seeing. Method: This is an exploratory study with a qualitative approach. Fifteen adults with visual impairment attended at a specialized ophthalmology ambulatory in a university hospital in the city of Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil were studied, from June to August 2015, through a semistructured interview. The speeches were analyzed based on the theory of mourning. Results: the results showed that the mental health of the visually impaired person is structured through a normative apparatus constituted of individual and social attributes dynamically constructed. These attributes are related to the constitution of stages of mourning, characterized by shock, denial, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The mental health of the visually impaired person contemplates the phases of normal mourning, established before the condition of visual loss, as structuring mode in a process of personal reconstruction, reflected in the ways of walking the life, proper from each one. Conclusion: With this study, it was possible to understand the ways of constitution and reconstitution of people in dealing with a new condition, the one of visual impairment, providing caregivers, family, and society with an ethical spirit and solidarity, more compliant and humane in the to deal with people with disabilities.