Cuidados às mulheres em situação de violência em dez territórios prioritários brasileiros

Abstract

Introduction: Violence against women was identified as one of the priority health guidelines issued in 2002 by WHO and the World Health Assembly resolution on strengthening the role of the health system in coping with violence, especially against women and girls. This study is in line with the project of Integral Care for Women's Health (Para Elas) of the Health and Peace Promotion Center of the Federal University of Minas Gerais' School of Medicine, alongside the Ministry of Health of Brazil (MS), which in addition to other goals proposes the confrontation of violence against women with the implementation of actions in ten priority municipalities in response to the National Pact to Curb Violence Against Women carried out in 2007. Goals: To examine the care assistance provided by professionals of the local service network to women exposed to violence in ten priority Brazilian territories and find elements that can contribute to the development and consolidation of the interdisciplinary and integral care assistance to women in these areas. Methodology: A qualitative study, based on the analysis of the professionals speeches of the local network of care assistance for women exposed to violence that attended the twentyfive focus groups held during the macro-regional workshops in ten municipalities with territories of the forest, water, and field populations in the 2013 to 2015 period. After the transcription of the recordings, Thematic content analysis was applied to the data, observing the steps of pre-analysis, material exploration, and treatment of the results. Three themes emerged from the speeches obtained in the focus groups that refer to professionals' interventions, existing difficulties, and expectations related to the care assistance to women exposed to violence. Categories were created based on the themes described and then analyzed and discussed according to the literature review to fulfill the study's goals. Results: Professionals adopt prescriptive interventions focused on the women's psychosocial aspects. Care assistance is fragmented, the equipment for women's attention works in a precarious and disarticulated ways, and the professionals feel unprepared for the job. Despite the discouraging scenario, the professionals present a positive attitude towards seeking changes in this context and point out necessary actions to improve the quality of the care assistance provided to women exposed to violence in those territories. Conclusions: The results indicate the need to train professionals for collective and shared care assistance practices aiming at the articulation of services and the integrality of women's care assistance.