ABSTRACT
Objective:
This study has the goal to analyze the articulation of the health network to assist users of alcohol, crack and other drugs from a nurses' perspective.
Methods:
This is an observational, descriptive, and exploratory study with a quantitative approach. It was conducted in the health network in a coastal city in the state of Piaui, Brazil, with 56 nurses who answered a questionnaire.
Results:
The majority of nurses (82.0%) reported that the place where they work is articulated with other health network services for assistance to users of alcohol, crack and other drugs. Mainly, it happens by using the referral to a mental health service (48.8%). The integration among the health staff (46.3%), and the responsibility with the user and his/her family was considered fair (51.2%). In fact, nurses who said that they use strategies to overcome this situation also informed the presence of difficulties on the integration process. Among the difficulties that were reported, 40.5% of them was related to disrespect for the reference and counter reference system.
Conclusion:
Thus, it is necessary to promote debates in order to discuss the functioning and coordination of the health network that assist these users.
Keywords:
Nurses, male; Delivery of health care; Drug users; Health services; Mental health
