Descobrindo experiências: compreensões de Agentes Comunitárias de Saúde sobre a demanda em saúde mental

Abstract

Community Health Agents (ACS) are essential professionals in Primary Health Care (APS), working in the territory and moving between the service and the community. When circulating in these places, they are in contact with the health processes and, therefore, the users' mental health. This work intended to identify the understanding of the demand of mental health care in the APS and the actions developed to offer such care, according to ACS working in a Basic Family Health Unit (UBSF) in a city in Minas Gerais. The research is qualitative, descriptive and exploratory. A questionnaire was applied and semi-structured interviews were carried out with five community health agents, the analysis being inspired by the thematic content analysis. Thus, the following categories were elaborated: (A) The identification of mental health demand by the ACS; (B) Follow-ups and mental health care: what the ACS does; (C) The faces of medication: what role does it play in mental health care?; (D) Strategies, possibilities and challenges in the performance of the ACS. It was observed that the process of identifying the demand in mental health is complex, as it is crossed by a generalizing thought about who the mental health user is. Medication appears as a criterion for carrying out care actions. The biomedical discourse was predominant, demanding to rethink the ways to produce health care. Finally, it is noteworthy that the ACS develop their work from soft technologies and their statements reveal the need to strengthen their work by managers and public policies.