Family health team work development and its effectiveness on health promotion

implicações para a promoção da saúde

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the limitations and possibilities of team work in Family Health Strategy (FHS) and its effectiveness on health promotion. It was developed in ten Primary Family Health Units of Health Districts in the municipalities of Belo Horizonte and Contagem. It was a qualitative study with data collected through semi structured interviews and analyzed according to Discourse Analysis. The research subjects were 3 doctors, 7 nurses, 9 nursing assistants and 9 community workers. The results demonstrate that team work in its forming process is an important instrument to the Family Health Program consolidation. Despite the difficulties and the critical points identified considerable progress has been achieved with technology implementation in team planning and programming. These teams have good potential and could function as model to other groups. In conclusion health promotion is a work in progress that should implicate other sectors of society in action planning and decision making and ought to favour an interdisciplinary approach. In such process the managers'role is fundamental to the planning of strategies in an intersectoral perspective. Their participation is key to the consolidation of the FHSs and to the understanding of health promotion as an activity that involves society and its institutions as a whole.