Author:

• Maria Beatriz Lisboa Guimarães - GUIMARÃES, M.B.L. - Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro - FIOCRUZ - <beatriz.guima@ensp.fiocruz.br>

Thematic Area:

Não Categorizado

Abstract:

The experience of Collective Ombudsman was developed in the Leopoldina region, city of Rio de Janeiro, enlarges the traditional vision of health vigilance. The Collective Ombudsman consists in organize a system of qualitative evaluation of the sanitary vigilance able to identify the health problems of the population and the methods utilized in the attempt to surmount the problems. Health professionals, religious and community leaders congregated in monthly forums to present and discuss living and health conditions perceived in the communities in which they carry on their activities. From the point of view of the social dimensions involved in the health-illness processes, this work aims to discuss the way the poverty compromises the popular classes’ health, especially for the mental health and in particular to the “diffuse suffering”. The methodology allowed us to organize, in a systematic way, the listening and favored the recognition of local knoledge, constructed from the life experiences of the people who deal with the suffering, the illness and their determinants on the life conditions of the poor population. The precarious living conditions for a significant part of the population were perceived as generating impasses in the resolution of their health problems. The results point towards the importance of understanding the health problems of the population, the resources utilized to face them and proposals for possible solutions in the field of health.

Key-words: collective ombudsman, health vigilance; poverty; health conditions; popular classes; diffuse suffering

Content:

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