Family, Social Work, and Health

   CONTENTS  

The promotion of health and social work

Assisting families is the historical foundation of the theory and methods of social work. To contribute to families’ knowledge of their rights and improve their access to public policies and as a function of social work’s importance, the Study and Research Group on Family, Social Work, and Health (GFASSS) plays an interventional role by proposing studies that lead to concrete actions.

A project chaired by Professor Maria Isabel Barros Bellini asked the following question: How are families that include a member with chronic disease assisted by public health and social work policies? How do families reorganize their lives when facing long-term hospitalizations? How are families included in the service and support networks? The results emphasize the fragility of support, supply grounds for corresponding policies, and emphasize the intersection of the combination and integration of governmental assistance initiatives.

Within the context of a partnership, including GFASSS/ PUCRS and the Health Secretaries of the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, professionals performing direct assistance of the population and policy managers were interviewed to investigate how intersectoriality is applied to the approach of families. The initial results show the precariousness of the working conditions, the relative absence of manpower as a function of large demand, the pauperization of families, and a misunderstanding of the notion of intersectoriality.

In Porto Alegre (RS), the group conducts the Learning health at school project, which targets adolescents. This project analyzes the contemporary setting of the pressures exerted on that age group and attempts to integrate education and health policies. The weekly meetings occur at a public school that emphasize the right of youths to health, school, and social assistance and are well received by the students, their teachers, and relatives.

Created in 2004, GFASSS includes undergraduate students in social work, nutrition, sociology, social communication, etc. and has established partnerships with the University of Santa Cruz (RS) in Brazil and University of Minho in Portugal.