The practice of the communitarian health agent with social networks at Family Health Strategy

Author(s)

Ricardo Lana Pinheiro

• 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: 2012-04-20

Examining board members

Carla Guanaes Lorenzi; Maria José Bistafa Pereira; Ana Cristina Nassif Soares

• Advisor: Carla Guanaes Lorenzi

Abstract

PINHEIRO, R. L. The practice of the communitarian health agent with social networks at Family Health Strategy. 2012. 124 f. Dissertação (Mestrado). Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, 2012. The Brazilian public policies for health came from a movement of transformation that, questioning the biomedical model of health care, search for an attention based on a broad concept of health, that embraces not only its biological determinants, but also psychological and social ones. Working towards the same direction, Brazil has invested in Primary Health Care, especially in the Family Health Strategy (FHS). \"Social network\" is a concept that may contribute to the development of new practices in this field. As we understand it, social network is the set of people with whom we interact on a regular basis and that we consider as different from the others. This research aims to discuss the relation between social networks and the practice of Communitarian Health Agents (CHAs) in the context of FHS, drawing from the meanings constructed by the CHAs of the town of Altinópolis (São Paulo, Brazil). With that aim, 28 CHAs from six FHS teams participated of the research. The construction of the research corpus included two discussion groups on each team. The first meeting aimed to know what the CHAs comprehended about social network, discussing its definition, functions and importance on people\'s lives. The second meeting aimed to know the structure of the CHAs social networks through the construction of an instrument called \"social network map\", and also to discuss the relations they perceived between their own social networks and health. The conversations were guided by the CHA\'s professional practices and by possibilities for health care considering social networks. The meetings were audio-recorded and integrally transcribed. These transcripts were analyzed by means of qualitative procedures of thematic analysis, based on the contributions of the social constructionist movement in Science. In our analysis, we constructed four thematic axis for reflections on the CHA\'s work: 1) Meanings of social network and implications for the work of the CHAs; 2) The appreciation/depreciation of the work of the CHAs; 3) Functions of the CHA in the work with social networks in health; and 4) The social network map as a tool for working with social networks in health. Based on these results, we discuss the fertility of including social networks in FHS practices, considering the implications of its use through a dialogue with both theory and the reports of the CHAs. We also discuss the social network map as a useful tool for this field. From our analysis, we discuss that the use of social networks in the FHS context can contribute to practices anchored in a broad concept of health, which includes, in addition to physical aspects of the health/disease process, social, economical and psychological aspects, valuing both the principles of integrality and territoriality in the assistance to families, considering the community and the CHAs as partners on the health care process. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 10/04227-1 - Social network and Family Health Strategy: meanings produced by communitarian agents and implications to the practice
• Grantee: Ricardo Lana Pinheiro
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master