Qualitative research conducted in Northeast Brazil, from September to November 2012, seeking to understand the experiences of families with users attended in psychosocial care units. Data collection used structured interviews, focus groups and participant observation. Participants were twenty families caregivers of adult users with severe mental disorders, with a history of psychiatric care in extinct hospital and being treated, at the time of the study, at a psychosocial care unit. In the empirical analysis, we used the phenomenological hermeneutics of Ricoeur. Families faced difficulties in domestic care, especially the situation of surveillance of problematic behaviors of family members with mental disorders. Families were satisfied with the care provided by the unit; however, they highlighted the need for improvements there, by their insertion in mental health care, qualification of host operating the service, regularization of the shortage of medicines and ensuring transportation for family members with mental disorders being cared for.
families; experience; psychiatric reform