In search of the common - the care practiced by community health workers in the Mental Health field

This article arises from an intervention research with community health workers (CHWs) in a Primary Health Care Center in Porto Alegre (Brazil). This research aims to study the strategies used by these professionals in mental health care. The research method applied was cartography, which intends to track the changes in the field of research, considering the co-production between the researcher and the object. Through meetings on Permanent Education in Health, paths were created/found to enhance the care practices of these professionals, guided by the reinvention of everyday perceptions and popular knowledge as tools for interventions with health system users. These were called practices of the common - following Negri and Hardt ’ s analyzes on the contemporary workforce changes and the resistance possibilities in this context - developing democratic care relationships, in a epistemology shared with high therapeutic potential. CHWs caught on the territorial network are affected by what belongs to them and may act out of these affections. However, the patchwork among private life, community knowledge and professional practice can have several results, also leading to guiltifying and hygienist actions. So constant attention is required to the ethical directions on which the work is developed.
Source: Physis: Revista de Saude Coletiva - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research