1. The right to live beyond the psychiatric hospital Míriam Dias Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil

2. This paper is a qualitative and quantitative explanatory research conducted in the Morada Sao Pedro Residential Therapeutic Service in 2007. One of the goals of this research was to verify the changes that occurred in the lives of the users after a long hospitalization in Sao Pedro Psychiatric Hospital, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.

3. We performed interviews with users and managers of the service as well as the quasi- experimental technique to compare the User’s data from the Independent Living Skills Scale Survey at two separate times. The first was in 2002, when the users were patients in the Sao Pedro Psychiatric Hospital. The other was in 2004, when the users were residents of Morada São Pedro.

4. Analysis and triangulation of data and t test of Student were performed. Of the nine domains of Independent Living Skills Scale Survey, one will be presented in this article, money management. Having financial resources gives people the possibility of autonomy, allowing the subject to have freedom of choice over types and forms of consumption.

5. All service users have a monthly income of monetary social benefits; they live in groups of four, and their budget is composed of the combination of their incomes. Supermarkets are their favorite place to buy the domestic supplies, and they prefer to buy their own furniture. The adequate management of the budget was found in 16.6% of the users in 2002 and 40% in 2004 which indicates an improvement in this skill, showing the existence of intellectual capacity and self-preservation.

6. The government covers the expenses of maintenance of the home, basic food and health- care. The users are responsible for buying clothing and food supplements. The users took pride in the fact that they acquired goods and quality meals by themselves, and our study verified that their homes were comfortable and well-furnished. The domain of money management had the best performance of the nine skill sets of autonomy, also expressing the presence of the phenomenon of consumption, which users’ began to integrate in their lives.

7. After years in the Psychiatric Hospital, when the users’ moved to Morada São Pedro Residential Therapeutic Service in 2003, they finally had the possibility of freedom, interaction and independence. In addition, they began to feel like citizens and felt the dignity of being a part of society. It can be concluded that the access to consumption resulted in a type of social inclusion for the users, who are in the process of appropriating their lives.

8. This is supported by many studies which explain how in the past, members of the working classes main aspiration was to own a home. Nowadays, as a result of societal transformations, such as productive restructuring, members of the working classes now considered both consumption and owning a home as their main aspirations.

9. Independent Living Skills Survey (ILSS) This scale was adapted and validated to Brazil by Lima et al. and Bandeira et al. based on the original scale developed by Wallace in 1986. It has 86 items evaluating autonomy of chronic patients in nine areas of everyday life, in terms of frequency with which they have the basic skills to be independent in the community. These areas are eating, personal care, household activities, preparation and storage of foods, health, leisure, money management, transportation and employment. Scores range from zero to four. Zero means the lowest degree of autonomy, and four indicates the highest degree. The validation study of the Brazilian version pointed satisfactory psychometric qualities of validity and reliability regarding internal consistency of its subscales, test/retest temporal stability, as well as discriminating validity and construct validity. Wallace CJ. Functional assessment in rehabilitation. Schizophr Bull. 1986;12:604-30.

10. Thank you miriamtgdias@gmail.com