The Child’s Handbook and occupational therapy in Primary Health Care

ABSTRACT

The Child Handbook (CH) is an essential instrument for monitoring child development, a theme present in the curricula of Occupational Therapy (OT) courses, a profession that has childhood as an important area of activity. However, few studies describe the profession’s actions in primary care for children’s health. This research aims to describe and analyze the actions and activities of OT students participating in the ‘Projeto Multicampi Saúde da Criança’ with mothers and children, based on the CH in the context of primary care. It is a quantitative, descriptive, and retrospective study, with data extracted from 37 field diaries. The most common actions were developmental surveillance consultations (27.4%), guidance (23.6%), health education, and home visits (12.3% each). Mapping of services, the School Health Program, therapeutic groups, matrix support, and team meetings appear to be less expressive. The data corroborate research that describes actions developed by occupational therapists in primary care and indicate that the CH provided an important range of actions in this context. It is also observed the importance of the occupational therapist in the multiprofessional team of attention to children’s health and the relevance of the ‘Projeto Multicampi Saúde da Criança’ in the formative path of the student.

KEYWORDS
Primary Health Care; Child development; Child health; Occupational therapy