The community health agents regularly make house calls and have direct contact with the population, so they’re essential to providing primary care services within the public health network<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Although interrupted by the pandemic and the overload of work this caused for all healthcare workers, actions involving community health agents have gradually been resumed. In any case, the hope is that the information gathered will serve to continuously improve the work done by these professionals and to qualify all health promotion activities in the area. Additionally, the products developed in the community have the potential to improve local governance. Some of the solutions can even be integrated into the urban development plans and the city’s Master Plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To support these discussions, the researchers used some participation instruments, including the so-called \u201ctalking maps.\u201d On large poster boards, the agents used drawings, photos, and keywords to represent the environmental and health problems they have noticed in the area. The map, explains Santos, was prepared using georeferencing tools, which help to more clearly establish the relationship between health and the area’s socioenvironmental conditions, as well as providing alternatives for better urban planning solutions based on the constraints identified in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Common sense<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

One of the researchers\u2019 concerns was ensuring that community health agents could participate at all stages of the study, highlights biologist Renata Ferraz de Toledo, of S\u00e3o Judas Tadeu University and author of this article. \u201cThey were involved in this study from the planning stage to interpreting the results obtained during the Culture Circles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toleda recalls that, during the meetings, the participants expressed feelings of \u201cblame\u201d in their statements, both for the perceived carelessness of some residents and for their apparent ignorance. \u201cThey reported that the information they provided was often ignored by the community. This shows that the agents, accustomed to one-way educational initiatives, presumed they were the only ones who knew what was best for the local population.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While discussing this openly, the health professionals cast a critical eye on the way they had been interacting with the residents. \u201cThey came to understand the importance of a dialogue-based approach, in order to increase local mobilization and strengthen dialogue with public authorities,\u201d says Toledo. According to the biologist, participatory research methods are able to amplify different voices in processes seeking solutions to increasingly intricate problems, such as those seen in environmental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDialogue is essential to participatory research aimed at connecting and reframing local knowledge and practices, which we call \u2018common sense,\u2019\u201d states Toledo. \u201cThis is possible in collaborative learning activities, in which researchers and other social players exchange popular and specialized knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Santos, establishing contact with common sense is essential to breaking down barriers that generally reinforce the cognitive exclusion of community knowledge from decision-making. \u201cThere is a hegemony over the production of knowledge that disfavors social groups seen as marginalized. Recognizing the importance of local knowledge is fundamental for implementing environmental and health policies in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers and community health agents join forces to tackle environmental and health problems in S\u00e3o Paulo’s urban periphery <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1541,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,85],"tags":[],"autor":[104],"temas":[],"chapeu":[195],"class_list":["post-1585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careers","category-news","autor-guilherme-vicente-2","chapeu-participatory-research"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n