Care model and professional practice of social workers in primary care

Abstract

This article reflects on the care model that supports social workers’ professional practice in primary care in the Sistema Único de Saúde (Unified Health System). The paper presents results of a Master’s thesis in Social Work of qualitative, exploratory and explanatory nature, grounded on critical social theory, a dialectical and historical materialism method of Marxian inspiration and its categories. The informants were social workers that, in 2007, integrated units of the Coordenadoria Geral de Atenção Básica à Saúde (General Coordination of Primary Health Care), an agency of the Secretaria Municipal de Saúde (Municipal Health Secretariat) of Porto Alegre, capital of the State of Rio Grande do Sul. The data were analyzed following the content analysis technique with thematic focus, considering the synthesis elements of thematic or explanatory category of the “care model” reality. The results were interpreted by means of a) theoretical-epistemological references, b) Social Work theoretical production, and c) the public health field.