Occupational Therapy in Multidisciplinary Residency in Family and Community Health

In this study, we report the experiences of occupational therapist during the Multidisciplinary Residency Program in Family and Community Health in Fortaleza, Ceará state, Brazil. With the creation of the Support Center for Family Health – NASF, occupational therapists began to participate more effectively in the Family Health Strategy of the Brazilian National Health System. Given this rocess, the category, which historically has trained its professionals following the biomedical model, is faced with the challenge to build a new field of knowledge. Objective: To analyze the inclusion of occupational therapy in the Family Health Strategy within the scope of Multidisciplinary Residency. Methodology: This is a descriptive study of qualitative approach, which was based on the experience of four occupational therapy resident students, performed through the documental analysis of field diaries, scientific papers, and case studies produced between 2009 and 2011. Results: The occupational therapists as well as the other NASF professionals operated the logic of Matrix Support to the Family Health teams, sharing their knowledge and assisting in resolving complex cases of the families, groups, and communities served. In this context, we found people with different relationships with their doings and a reduced repertoire of activities. The occupational therapists invested in the creation or consolidation of groups in the Family Health Centers and in the territory, which also stood as living and socializing spaces, focusing on prevention and health promotion

Occupational Therapy in Primary Health Care: responsibilities, actions, and technologies

This article aims to provide means to mobilize occupational therapists towards reflections and studiesthat support and tool up Occupational Therapy (OT) for its attributions, actions and technologies related toPrimary Health Care (PHC). It is the result of discussions held at the First National Seminar on OccupationalTherapy in PHC, which occurred in the Brazilian Congress of OT in Sao Paulo/2011. Its goal is to look at PHCin the sanitary international movement, its expression in Brazil and some historical reflections on the insertionof OT at such level of care. It points out that the formation of such profession, in spite of being historicallygrounded on the biomedical view of health, has contributed to a more effectual and comprehensive approachto the concept of health, for in its object of study and intervention, which includes the understanding of therelationship that individuals establish with their everyday activities, there is an expansion of awareness of the processes of illness and disabilities and also the biopsychosocial understanding of the individuals cared at thislevel. It also carries out an exercise of confrontation between the principles and propositions advocated byPrimary Care and the normative, epistemic and pragmatic precepts of this profession, suggesting possible OTattributions, actions and technologies related to Primary Health Care. It ends with the warning that, in spite ofOT progress so far, this profession is still quantitatively and qualitatively limited as to its actions, attributionsand technologies, and suggests further studies and debates on the matter to strengthen and tool up OccupationalTherapy for Primary Health Care