Supporters of Brazilian Unified National Health System (SUS)/Brazil: Who are, where are and what work they done?

INTRODUCTION: In recente years institutional support has been of great importance in the implementation of activities and intervention strategies within the Brazilian Ministry of Health (BMH). With this increasing investment in this type of strategy, it’s essential to understand the experiences and its relationship with SUS’s principles. The aims is to understand the health professionals who recognize themselves in the exercise of the support function in the Brazilian Unified National Health System (SUS).  

METHODS: This is part of a survey conducted by the BMH, PAHO and Research Laboratory on Health Integral Care Practices (Lappis). Self-administered questionnaires, answered online, were used to identify socio-demographic characteristics, experiences, training and work done by the supporters and  it was considered only those with complete responses (n=479). A general description of the data was conducted examinee the distribution of frequencies and its confidence interval for each study variable, followed by bivariate for selected variables.  

RESULTS: Among the registered females appears more prevalent (90%), residing in the Southeast (40% CI95%:35.2-44.2) and Northeast (21% CI95%:17.4-25) of the country and with a mean age of 40 years. Half of respondents in recent in this wotk - have 2-5 years as supporters (CI95%:44.5-53). They has at least college level, and 32% reported having expertise (CI95%:27.7-36.4) and 26% master's (CI95%:22.3-30.5%). Most participants have more of a bond with the Brazilian public health institutions (15% with BMH, 29% with State Departments of Health, 44% with Municipal Health and 20% with universities).  

CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary results are important for the mapping of supporters in SUS services and their practices at the interface with the right to health, training, management of work processes and social networks for health care. However, this is a recent experience in the context of implementation of health policies and needs to be further researched and debated so their scope and effects valued.