Family meanings constructed by health professionals in the Brazilian Family Health Strategy

Author(s)

Luiza Campos Menezes

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Ribeirão Preto.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (PCARP/BC)
• Defense date: 2016-02-19

Examining board members

Clarissa Mendonça Corradi Webster; Gustavo Correa Matta; Silvia Matumoto

• Advisor: Carla Guanaes Lorenzi

Abstract

In constructing social policies, a central role has been assigned to the family regarding its social protection and care for its members. In Health, the family assumes such centrality in the Brazilian Family Health Strategy (FHS), being understood as a health care object. This centrality is given from an intention of changing the health care model, which should aim integrality of care and a look at/attention towards the living conditions as fundamental in the health-illness process. But the changes in the meanings and health practices have been challenging. From the social constructionist perspective, which guides this study, we understand that the meanings are built in interactions among people and that such constitute social practices. Given these elements - challenges in the FHS and the said perspective - we aim to understand the meanings produced by health team professionals about families in contexts of FHS family discussion meetings. We seek to analyze how these meanings shape the production of care practices and also how these senses are dynamically constructed from the negotiations among participants. The corpus construction was structured from observation and audio records from 16 FHS teams meetings, with 26 participants, including professionals and trainees from different specialties. The analysis was based on the discursive practices perspective, with the following steps: 1) material transcription; 2) intensive reading and material organization; 3) construction of meanings about family, and analysis of interpretative repertoires, discourse use, and implications for action; and 4) illustrative narrative of meanings dynamics. Meanings constructed in the analysis were: a) family as people who live together: the repertoires described the ways of being family considering the environment they live, understanding family as informant and caregiver of its members; b) family as responsible for care: Family repertoires as that which supports its members and holds accountability for them; also, sometimes becomes overloaded with such stewardship; c) Family as problem: repertoire that conceived family as being responsible for members\' health problems, acting as a stressor to them or as one that is at risk; d) Family as relationships network, meaning more commonly attributed in conversations about complex cases, with discussions oriented to settings, structures and family dynamics. From the analysis of a team discussion process on one \"case\", it was possible to illustrate the dynamism of these senses in conversations and how they are negotiated at all times. The analysis demonstrates that professionals endeavor to turn their efforts towards the family, but practices are still commonly centered on the individual and less grounded in context and living conditions of families. We understand that giving visibility to these different senses and their use allows reflections on how each way of describing families allows the construction of different practices, potentially contributing to greater reflection of health professionals about their daily practice (Support Capes and FAPESP- 2014 / 08618-6). (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 14/08618-6 - MEANINGS CONSTRUCTED BY HEALTH PROFESSIONALS ABOUT WORKING WITH FAMILIES IN THE "FAMILY HEALTH STRATEGY"
• Grantee: Luiza Campos Menezes
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master