Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Social support of the institutions to family members of homicide victims is discussed based on the analysis of the perceptions of professionals in primary health care and social assistance who work in the city of São Gonçalo, Brazil. Interviews were conducted with 21 professionals from Family Health Units, Extended Family Health Center and Specialized Social Assistance Reference Center, in 2018. Some professionals recognize the suffering triggered by the loss of family members due to homicide and physical and mental health impacts of this event on the population. However, they demonstrate difficulties in addressing this issue and little acknowledge the possibilities that these services offer in supporting these families. We conclude that health and social assistance services are not prepared to meet the needs of family members of victims of homicide, partly due to the perpetuity of violence in the areas where they work and sometimes live. The problem demands the formulation of public policies to support these families and to raise awareness and improve training for professionals who deal with this population. The absence of social support reinforces the isolation of the relatives of victims and intensifies the impacts on health, which can even lead to premature death.

The objective was to evaluate the educational process carried out by the Extended Family Health and Primary Care Center in the care of systemic arterial hypertension and diabetes mellitus in Recife, Brazil. An evaluative research was conducted, guided by Paulo Freire’s educational theory, with the elaboration of a theoretical model. Four professionals from the Extended Family Health and Primary Care Center, eleven professionals from the Family Health Strategy and ten patients with hypertension and / or diabetes participated in the study. Focus groups were conducted, and the data collected between November 2018 and February 2019 were submitted to content analysis. The coexistence of use by professionals of banking and problematizing concepts was evidenced. Vertical and little discussed by the professionals practices as well as a curative and medical-centered view in the patients’ statements were identified. There were also transformative actions in the work process of professionals and reports of improvements in the health conditions of patients participating in educational groups. In addition, the incentive to seek rights during educational activities led to the achievement of the implementation of the Academia da Cidade [City Gym] Program in the territory. These findings reveal the transformative power of educational actions when they become participatory and are built based on the experiences and needs of the population.

The article analyzes the setbacks in the National Mental Health Policy in the period between 2016 and 2019, based on a study of the norms issued by the federal government and documents of a public nature, and on the study of data from the Brazilian Ministry of Health regarding the mental health network of the Unified Health System. All normative documents that make up a set of ‘reorientations’ of the Policy were evaluated, in addition to those that directly affect it, including opposing positions issued by the executive, legislative and judicial branches. The analysis indicates the first effects of these changes in the Psychosocial Care Network, such as encouraging psychiatric hospitalization and financing for therapeutic communities, actions based on a prohibitionist approach to issues related to the use of alcohol and other drugs. The analysis of the management data allows to affirm that there is a tendency of stagnation in the pace of implantation of community-based services. This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the fundamentals and the strategic direction of the changes, which imply a setback in the Psychiatric Reform guidelines, aiming to broaden the debate on the forms of resistance to the dismantling of the National Mental Health Policy.

Institutional and social expectations related to teaching work have intensified. The teaching activity is nowadays characterized by precarious work, associated with a conception of the school as a company, in which multiple work links with a high workload are frequent, with negative consequences on teaching health. In the present study, we report qualitative findings obtained from the analysis of posts by teachers of basic education in a virtual forum on nutrition education. Such spontaneous discussions by the teachers revealed a contrast between the intense concern with the nutritional health of their students that masks the attention to these issues in relation to themselves. The incorporation of socially imposed expectations by teachers in order to solve complex issues such as obesity among students seems to acquire such dimensions that obliterate the discussion on nutritional health itself. These expectations, when imposed without the means to meet them, can contribute to teacher suffering. We also highlight the importance of the existence of spaces and listening conditions for teachers involved in education on health issues in schools.

This paper investigates the current configurations of the theme of health in the professional education curricula in Physical Education (PE) in a state university. It presents partial results of research based on data collected through document analysis of the Course Pedagogical Projects (professional degree course and bachelor’s degree course) and semi-structured interviews with seven teachers who participated in the curricular reformulations of these courses. The analyses were based on Anthony Giddens’ structuration theory, which permitted to highlight the agent-structure relationship and the institutional reproduction/changes. The results show that the current configurations of the theme of health are linked mainly to the Natural and Biological Sciences (with greater evidence in the bachelor’s degree course) and, to a lesser extent, to the Social and Human Sciences/Collective Health (occurring in both courses). The study highlights the challenge of ensuring greater presence of the Social and Human Sciences/Collective Health in the professional education curricula, since PE has increasingly been required to integrate multidisciplinary teams and projects based on expanded health policies.

The social context of the capitalist production system impacts labor relations, including precarious scenarios marked by instability and insecurity for workers. Here we discuss data derived from a qualitative study carried out in the municipality of Erechim, Brazil, from February to April 2018, which investigated the relationship between work, corporeality and health based on the analysis of narratives produced by recyclable material collectors and ethnographic incursions in their work context. We sought to problematize the incidence of delivery of the body to work and its repercussions in the case of the collectors participating in the research, considering the health dynamics that integrate the physical, psychological and social dimensions of these subjects. The results indicate the circumstances of vulnerability to which they are exposed. As can be seen from their narratives, the work is linked to the need, leading them to disregard the adverse conditions involved in its realization or to adapt to them, even though the costs of this process are high. This reality indicates the urgency of analysis of the relationships between work, health and social inequality in the Brazilian context, considering that health is a fundamental human right and its enjoyment must be available to everyone.

The research aimed to analyze the profile of professionals working in primary care in municipalities in Amazonas and the relationship with provision and fixation in these places. It was an analytical, descriptive study, of a quantitative nature, carried out from 2014 to 2016. Data from doctors, nurses and dentists working in primary care in twenty municipalities in Amazonas (Brazil) were analyzed, totaling 397 professionals. Medical professionals are less fixated, have less relatives, local residency and belong to other locations. Nursing professionals have more specializations and management functions. The health regions of Juruá, Triângulo, Madeira and the surroundings of Manaus have fewer professionals in primary care. The municipalities of Parintins, Itacoatiara and Tabatinga have a larger population outside the capital and have a greater number of professionals. There is a tendency for professionals to seek work in capitals and cities with a greater offer of services to carry out their health activities. In turn, municipalities with difficult access face a greater challenge to promote the establishment and provision of health professionals.

Home care services contribute to the reduction of hospital burden, deinstitutionalization, humanization and comprehensive care. Therefore, the professional improvement of the teams of home care services is extremely relevant, since the work moves from health institutions to the private life of the user, requiring detachment from traditional practices and understanding of home relationships. In this sense, a qualitative research was conducted in Recife, Brazil, from December 2018 to April 2019, which aimed to understand how different subjects (n = 14) perceive and interpret the effects of training offered to teams from the care services home based in the city, using conceptual elements described by Abbad about training evaluation. The findings demonstrate that there was a positive perception of the subjects about the effects of training, but also indicate that there were few changes in services, mainly due to the lack of multiplication of the knowledge acquired for the professionals who were not trained and the insufficient psychosocial support to the application. practice of the contents. The issues raised in this study demonstrate the complexity of home care in Brazil and the need to formulate educational and organizational strategies that enhance care within the home.

This article sought to evaluate the deliberative effectiveness in a municipal health council, in order to produce information that contributes to the improvement of the deliberative democracy. This is a case study, with a qualitative approach, about the Municipal Health Council of Criciúma, Brazil. Data collection was performed in 2018 based on the following strategies: participant observation, 12 semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The organized and systematized data resulted in three thematic categories, namely: functioning; power relations between the State and Civil Society; and conflicting issues. As a result, it was found that the principles of equal participation, deliberative equality, freedom of thought, as well as plurality of composition, the topics discussed, the rules for defining the agenda and for the occupation of the presidency make this forum more democratic collegiate body. However, the principle of deliberative inclusion is undermined by issues related to the divergence of interests, especially personal and political interests to the detriment of collective interests, which is the biggest obstacle related to deliberative effectiveness. In this scenario, the importance of informing and raising awareness among councilors is evident, in order to expand the capacity for intervention in the ethical, political and knowledge fields in the field of democracy and health.

The aim of this study was to analyze the profile of theses and dissertations on transvestite, transsexuality and health in the stricto sensu Post-Graduate Programs in Brazil, through a study based on the theoretical-methodological framework of bibliometric analysis. The 65 selected works were extracted from the Theses and Dissertations Catalog of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel and the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations. It appears that most of the productions are dissertations (82%) coming from the Graduate Programs in Collective Health (27%) and from Federal Institutions of Higher Education (65%), located in the South and Southeast (70%). The qualitative approach was the most used (82%) and the transsexualizing process in the Unified Health System was the predominant theme (35%). The study revealed that Brazilian theses and dissertations on the transvestite-transsexuality-health triad have been on the rise in the last twenty years, with a decrease in the focus on the illness of transvestites and transsexuals and an increased focus on the social, organizational and political aspects that interfere in the access of these people to health services. Even so, it is necessary to expand research on the theme to other regions of the country, positively impacting scientific production and a more equitable and universal health system.