EDITORIAL
With the release of this new issue, the journal Saúde e Sociedade continues its mission of disseminating the production of different areas of knowledge and approaching the field of public health in an interdisciplinary way. Besides the originality of the papers and the traditional thematic multiplicity, I would like to emphasize the methodological diversity of the studies and research published in this issue. The authors use taxonomy methods and techniques that encompass qualitative treatments, verified in ethnographic reports, case studies and discourse analyses; sophisticated quantitative techniques with the use of primary and secondary data; and finally, original approaches to documental and bibliographic research.
This appropriation of diverse methodologies in the different studies enriches the journal even more. This issue opens with three papers that approach international experiences in the public health field.
In the first text, Granjo deals with the dialectical interaction between "health and illness in Mozambique", in which he discusses the dialog attempts between biomedicine and traditional medicine in the African country. The author analyzes the lack of knowledge or the undervaluation of the local notions about illness, permeated by cultural and traditional aspects, and the implication of this negligence for therapy and cure processes. In the second paper, Santinho approaches "rebuilding memories: young refugees in Portugal", analyzing aspects of the mental health field among the population of youths that seek for asylum in that country. This study uses the youths' narrative to associate their condition with life experience, which registers war contexts, testimonies of violence and torture, isolation caused by language barriers and distance from families and social networks.
The last paper in the block of international reports is a study conducted by Pusseti about "biopolitics of depression in African immigrants" coming from the Sub-Saharan portion of the continent and the expansion of a new and important mental pathology associated with these groups: Ulysses Syndrome, a set of factors of multiple and chronic stress, whose pharmacological treatment is analyzed in a critical approach.
Among other papers published in this issue of Saúde e Sociedade, it is possible to highlight a set of studies that can be agglutinated under the thematic axis health and work. The inaugural text of this discussion, authored by Machin and collaborators, deals with the "representations of dock workers from Santos concerning the relation between work and health". Beyond the work conditions, the study shows the healthcare strategies adopted by workers and their families, focusing on the gender perspective and on the reiterated masculinity of dock work, in view of the development of illness versus the reproduction of dock values.
Aspects associated with the inclusion or not of people with mental health problems are approached by Gomes-Machado and Chiari in the "study of the adaptive skills developed by young people with Down syndrome", included or not in the labor market. The research reveals that people with previous adaptive skills were favored in the selection for jobs to the detriment of the others, who did not have these previous abilities. The paper tackles this phenomenon in light of the family and sociocultural environment in which individuals with Down Syndrome live.
Worker's health in the labor environment is the object of a case study developed by Vasconcelos and collaborators about "employment and occupational accidents in the slaughterhouse industry in expansion areas of agribusiness in the state of Mato Grosso". Analyzing secondary data obtained from the database of the Occupational Accidents Reports (CATs) of the Social Security Ministry, data from the Annual Relation of Social Information (RAIS) of the Ministry of Labor and Employment, and from the National Survey through Household Samples (PNAD - IBGE), the authors suggest indexes of precarious employment and working conditions in the slaughterhouse activity. They also mention the insufficiency of the State's vigilance and inspection actions in the sector, such as the scarce investment into workers' health and safety in the agribusiness of Mato Grosso.
Concluding the theme health and work, there is the study conducted by Nakamura and collaborators, about "vocal problems at work: prevention in the teaching practice according to the teacher's view", and the research into workers' eating practices, carried out by Viana, with the title "modern factory and dietary pattern: the space of work, consumption and health". In both cases, labor practices that produce reflections on workers' health are identified, either by means of the use of the voice, in the case of the teachers, or by means of the inadequacy of the dietary patterns of the workers from the Petrochemical Complex of Camaçari, in the State of Bahia.
As traditionally occurs in Saúde e Sociedade, this issue disseminates research that elects primary care as analytical scope and object of investigation. In this perspective, the journal publishes an article by Gomes and collaborators, entitled "the praxis of the community health agent in the context of the Family Health Program (PSF): strategic reflections". Their objective was to analyze the conceptions and perceptions about Brazil's National Health System (SUS) and Family Health Program that guide the practice of the community agents of the city of Cajuri, state of Minas Gerais. The research revealed that these agents have low cognitive appropriation of the content of the principles of SUS and of the PSF guidelines, which, to the authors, would be of fundamental importance for the qualification of these professionals who conduct the mediation between the population and the health system.
Primary care is also approached by Gomes and Lichtig in a text entitled "participation of community members in the identification of hearing loss in preschool children", which aimed to test the capacity of community health agents to identify hearing problems in children, with the utilization of a low cost screening instrument. The authors statistically compared the results of the assessment performed by the agents with those of the screening conducted by specialists. The research found high correlation between the diagnoses of the two segments, showing that adequately trained non-specialists were able to identify in a reliable way hearing problems in the examined group.
Ferreira and collaborators analyzed the "health program for elders at primary health care centers", based on a bibliographical review, the local population's knowledge and regional demands concerning new activities, besides the mapping of the activities promoted by Centro de Saúde Escola Dr. Alexandre Vranjac, located in the neighborhood of Barra Funda, in the city of São Paulo. The paper shows that in-service practice enabled the production of a guidebook targeted at health professionals, aiming to solve doubts and guide the handling of the elderly patient.
With the set of papers and experience reports in the public health field published in this issue, we invite the reader to a fruitful reading and constant utilization of this content as theoretical and methodological reference for studies and academic research and for the assessment of healthcare services.
Irineu Francisco Barreto Junior
On behalf of the Editorial Board
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
16 Dec 2009 -
Date of issue
Dec 2009
