This paper discusses the constitutive tension of the support function in its institutive task of proposing actions for health work groups that have been limited in their inventive capacity and in their possibilities of producing health for themselves and for others. The initial development of the concept and some dilemmas found in the path of support experimentations are discussed in order to elucidate questions such as: What can be announced as support since its inscription in Brazilian Health System as technology of change sustained by the enhancement of institutional democracy? What are the limits in the exercise of this support function? The reflections propose the problematization of what the (mis)leadings of the experimentations claim concerning what support was, has been and will be.
Health public policies; Public Health; Brazilian Health System; Institutional analysis; Institutional support