The foundation of care: Family Health Program teams dealing with domestic violence situations

As violence has proved to be an important public health issue, it has stimulated scientific production and the development of public policies. The objective of the present article is to understand the care strategies developed by Family Health Program Teams in Diadema to handle domestic violence situations. A qualitative analysis approach of selected cases identified by the teams as “difficult”, “typical” and “successful” was adopted. Two Family Health Program teams and different professionals from the intersectoral network were interviewed. Organizing services according to the Family Health Strategy guidelines has shown to be a facilitating factor to develop care strategies to handle domestic violence. Professionals identified different kinds of violence in the assisted families, but the actions of the teams focused mainly on the child abuse related situations. Violence against women in general was not taken into account by the teams, which shows different degrees of “visibility” among the various types of violence. Strategies included actions to promote deeper bonds with the family, cases monitoring and biomedical aspects evaluation, as well as more acute actions such as mandatory hospitalization. The strategies developed alternate from a prescriptive perspectivel to one more centered in the concept of Care, during the interaction with the families and regarding their needs. The community health agents and NASF professionals were the main protagonists in these cases, articulating practical and technical knowledge.