Spirituality in public health policies

• Grant number: 18/25195-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): February 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): January 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Theory of Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Rodrigo Ferreira Toniol
• Grantee: Ana Beatriz Foster
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 18/05193-5 - Institutionalized spirituality: public policies, clinical uses and medical research in the legitimation of spirituality as a health issue in Brazil, AP.JP

Abstract

The activities of this Scientific Initiation scholarship correspond, in the main project, to the research axis dedicated to the analysis of the presence and use of the notion of spirituality in public health policies in Brazil. According to what was presented, "spirituality" is a term that progressively has been used in official health ministry documents. In particular, call attention the references, explicit in public policy texts, to "spiritual dimension of health", "spiritual values" and "care for spirituality". Based on dialogue with the literature as already delineated in the main project, the focus on the empirical interest of this Scientific Initiation research will be the occurrences of categories 'spirituality', 'religion' and 'spirit' in texts of public health policies promulgated in Brazil since the SUS creation. Exploring this material, the scholar contracted will produce fundamental information to de main project development. This information, once systematized, may also be associated with the reflections that the researcher who proposes this research has done on the presence of these categories in the documents of the World Health Organization (WHO). Thus, it will be possible to advance in the analysis of the correspondences between the legitimacy of the pair spirituality and health in the context of global health management agencies (such as WHO) and local instances of care promotion.