Entre o saber popular e a ciência: o sofrimento mental na ótica dos Agentes Comunitários de Saúde.

Abstract

The current policies of mental health advocate the insertion of the care in mental health in the conjuncture of the basic attention network for being ruled by the guidelines of SUS (Health Care System), for its congruence with the principles of the Psychiatric Reform and for working with the concept of territory, prevention, promotion and rehabilitation of health. An important performer in this process is the Health Communitarian Agent (HCA) due to his work in the community and the probability of promoting changes in the field of attention in mental health. This study searched to find the knowledge of the Health Communitarian Agents (HCA) about the mental suffering; to identify the notion of mental suffering of the HCA and to describe the form of identification of people with mental suffering by the HCA's, highlighting the issues. This research is exploratory, with qualitative approach, counted on the participation of nine HCA's who act in two units of FHS (Family Health Strategy) of the municipality of Uirauna, PB. The instruments for data collection was a semi-structured interview guide with objective questions and leading questions as to the fulfillment of the interview. The qualitative data were analyzed by the method of the Content Analysis, in its modality Thematic Analysis. The researcher followed loyally the ethical observances of the Resolution 196/96 of the Health National Council. It was verified that the subjects of the study were exclusively female, with average age of 36 years old and 44,44% were married. Regarding the education level 55,55% concluded high school. All of the HCA's reside in the acting area, with average service time of approximately 10 years. From the Thematic Analysis were identified two themes: Mental suffering on the perspective of the HCA's and Identification of people with mental suffering by the HCA's. it was verified that the HCA's routinely find people with mental issues in the community, however, the knowledge that fundaments its actions in health is constituted by a knowledge which transits between the scientific and the popular, constructed through practice and living, due to the lack of training courses on this practice field. The notion of these professionals concerning mental suffering is still linked to the idea of mental instability, incapacity and lack of impulse control. The HCA's identify the situations of mental suffering through observation of divergent behaviors, presence of aggressiveness, disorientation, isolation and sadness. The relevance of the training in mental health for these professionals favors a higher articulation between the services and the integrity in the attention. It is hoped that this research may contribute in the rethinking of the knowledge and the ways of dealing with mental health by the HCA's.