O serviço social e o controle social na saúde : uma análise sob a perspectiva dos assistentes sociais

Abstract

This dissertation, prepared under the Graduate Program of Social Work at PUCRS, presents a qualitative study whose main objective is to analyze how Social Work is conducted within the scope of social control at the SUS [Unified Health Care System], in order to identify the professional role being developed, and to what extent this space is recognized as an axis of professional activity of Social Workers. Social control is understood as a space of contradiction that can both contribute to the democratization of social policies and serve to legitimize the needs of capital. Therefore, it is the stage for class struggle. The health care policy is investigated as the first social policy to guarantee social control in its legislation, through the Health Care Councils and Conferences. This study analyzed the approximation between the Health Reform Project and the Ethical-Political Social Work Project. It used the historical and dialectical materialism method to make a critical reading of social reality. The subjects investigated were the Social Workers who work at the Conceição Hospital Group. For these Social Workers, it was found that social control activities take place more in terms of encouraging the participation of users in the search for their protagonism than in direct participation by the Social Workers in social control areas. The majority of the subjects studied consider social control to be an axis of professional activity; however, there are weaknesses in the materialization of social control in their daily work. Better recognition of the Ethical-Political Social Work Project would help to identify the professional role of the Social Workers in terms of social control