This article is a theoretical thought concerning how relatives were included in the attendance the person in mental suffering. The onset was the constitution of Psychiatry as a medical science up to our days. We noticed that the family was excluded from the care to the mental patient and that attention and investigation of the matter only started after World War II along with the psychiatric outpatient treatment process. In Brazil, a strategy seeking to support families facing psychic suffering is still incipient.
Family; Mental disorders; Psychiatric