This article studies the demands on the professional activities of social workers in public health services when the state's role was redefined in the nineties. It first discusses the reductionist character of the state in light of the neoliberal policies implemented by the Brazilian government. It then examines health policies in the eighties in order to identify the repercussions for public health services in the nineties. Finally, it establishes the configurations and reconfigurations of the demands on social services within the public health services. The article points out that one has to take a closer look on the social, historical, economic, political, and cultural determinants of social and health issues, especially in the limitations of professional intervention in the processes related to the healthillness binomial, since they are tied to macrolevel societary processes.
professional demands; health policies; professional intervention
