Integral healthcare model for treating problems caused by alcohol and other drugs: perceptions of users, their companions and practitioners

Abstract

Based on an integral healthcare model for the users of alcohol and other drugs, the expansion of Brazil's Psycho-Social Care Centers - Alcohol and Drugs (CAPS-AD) is guided by the acknowledgement of users as citizens rather than patients, aiming at social reinsertion through an intersectoral approach and damage control, as well as other principles designed to build up integral healthcare services that are fair and egalitarian. This paper examines alcohol and drug users, their companions and healthcare practitioners in terms of the existing healthcare model, through a study conducted at two Psycho-Social Care Centers - Alcohol and Drugs in Recife, Pernambuco State. Focus groups, participative observation and documentary surveys were used to analyze the daily work routines at these Centers, exploring player perceptions and therapeutic projects. The findings indicate that users are still perceived as being ill, with medicalization and other traces of care models not used since the Psychiatric Reform. Social reinsertion was perceived as the main obstacle in integral healthcare. Restructuring this practice seems necessary, in order to break away from a culture of prejudice, exclusion and illness, as well as control models based on hospital-centric psychiatry.