Violence, drug addiction and the work process of Family Health Strategy: conflict of a large Brazilian urban center

Abstract

The implantation and consolidation of Family Health Strategy (ESF) in a great urban center is a challenge. Matters of social historical dynamics of a great urban center influence the work process and the needs of health education perceived by the health professionals. Poverty, economic inequality, drugs and urban violence potentiate themselves through a cruel and positive feedback, what Campos called a crazy and contradictious information flow, a vicious cycle of values destruction influencing on the health professionals’ activities. This study aimed to analyse the perceptions of higher level professionals that work on Family Health Strategy about the influence of their work in a great urban center on the work process of the teams and educational needs of the professionals, particularly urban violence, drug addiction and drug trafficking. The study presents a qualitative approach on practical discourse of the health professionals, from focus groups and individual interviews, with the scope of analysis based on the Content Analysis method, applied through a thematic cathegorial analysis. Differences between Family Health Strategy in small and average cities and in the capital and its inherent difficulty of work were recurrent. Reflections about the urban violence problematic, drug addiction and drug trafficking are explicit on this  study. Inherent risks and vulnerabilities of the matter arise as problematic to be faced by the professionals of Family Health Strategy: sexual promiscuity, early active sex life, unprotected sex activity, prostitution, negligence of children, family problems, negligence and mistreatment of the elderly, truancy, among others.