Health in Niterói: line of health care for people in situations of violenceLucas Benevides/Ascom
Published 02/05/2024 11:19
According to the municipal secretary of Health, Anamaria Schneider, early detection of violence is essential. “To care for victims of violence, different knowledge, knowledge and approaches must be considered, involving a multidisciplinary team, at all levels of care. Prevention is a priority for our health care actions, as well as early detection in a sensitive approach based on care in Primary Care”, explained the secretary.
The initiative is from the Department of Technical Methodological Supervision (Desum), of the Vice-Presidency of Collective Care, Family Outpatient Care (VIpacaf). For the action, a guiding document was prepared to mainly highlight the organization of services and some clinical guidelines. A basis was created to present in detail the possible flows in the process of caring for people in situations of violence.
The executive superintendent of the Department of Health, Adriane Fablicio, began the opening session by reciting a poem by the writer Roseana Murray, victim of the attack by three dogs. She took the opportunity to reinforce the integrality actions of this line of care that came together in partnership for peace and comprehensive support for the health of women in the city. “I come here not to talk about violence, but to praise a line of care that propagates and defends women’s lives and the maintenance of the prevention of the culture of peace”, reinforced Adriane Fablicio.
The vice-president of Collective and Outpatient Family Care, Maria Célia Vasconcellos, highlighted the importance of the initiative. “This new ordinance, which defined that all units must have a listening space for people in situations of violence, is more than a policy. The care line will help care teams and women to know their rights”, concluded Maria Célia.
The coordinator and advisor in the Technical Area of Violence Prevention at Desum, Beatriz Malheiros, recalled the relevance of the launch date of the line, April 30th, National Women’s Day. “Today is National Women’s Day and it is women who build health. This meeting today has a lot of power, this line of care has a lot of power. Today marks the milestone of Niterói’s commitment to showing that health is a strategic place to talk about violence, not silence. The other word is pioneering. Niterói was one of the first places in the country to create a violence notification form. This was transforming at a national level. Power and pioneering are my words for this line of care”, emphasized the coordinator.
Beatriz Malheiros presented the main points of the line of care, highlighted the topics covered and explained the process of preparing and constructing the document, which was formulated after meetings, presentations and dialogues with health units and administrations. The purposes were to identify needs and align flows of conduct, based on suspicions and reports of violent situations.
The coordinator of Desum, Analice Silva Martins, and the director of Vipacaf, Vinícius Lima, thanked everyone for their presence, and highlighted the partnership with the Health Surveillance Coordination and the Women’s Rights and Policies Coordination (Codim). The line of care is the result of a lot of dialogue and work, so that it becomes a reality in the lives of the city’s population, as well as an instrument for improving the daily lives of health professionals and users. Violence is considered by the WHO and PAHO (Pan American Health Organization) to be a serious public health problem, with multifactorial and multidimensional causes and consequences. The issue has a significant impact on people’s health and is a relevant phenomenon for the Unified Health System (SUS).
The Health Department already has the “Niterói Health Regional Surveillance Project” as a strategy to combat violence in the city. The implementation takes place jointly with various representatives of the intra and intersectoral network. The project takes place in each health region with the aim of monitoring reported cases and defining strategies for surveillance and combating violence. The action is linked to Desum, together with Covig. The team receives the form and identifies the reference health unit; communicates the case to the reference Primary Care unit so that an active search can be carried out; and referral is made to the competent bodies for assistance and reception. Intersectoral meetings are also held in the Health Regions to discuss and coordinate the health network.
