Public invisibility of Integrative and Complementary Practices and social humiliation of workers who offer them in Primary Health Care

Abstract

Introduction: “(R)existing” in the face of biomedical hegemony makes the offer of Integrative and Complementary Practices in Primary Health Care even more challenging, even with the existence of a national policy that establishes its implementation. The current political and institutional scenario disfavors what moves away from the “conventional”. The primacy of maintaining the status quo results in resistance to the “different”. This influences care practices, so that Integrative and Complementary Practices can suffer obstacles and reveal tensions regarding their realization. Objective: To understand, from the perspective of professionals, the factors that contribute to the production of social humiliation and public invisibility of Integrative and Complementary Practices in Primary Health Care. Methods: This is a descriptive, exploratory study with a qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 20 professionals from 14 Primary Health Care services in three cities in the Metropolitan Region of Goiânia, between January and August 2018. The interviews recorded, transcribed, and treated with thematic content analysis. Results: From the analysis, two categories emerged: the social humiliation of professionals in Integrative and Complementary Practices in Primary Health Care and the production of public invisibility of Integrative and Complementary Practices in Primary Health Care. Professionals suffer different forms of social humiliation with the lack of support for their work and the Integrative and Complementary Practices suffer from public invisibility due to insufficient discussion about their offer in team meetings and inconsistency in the registration in the users' charts. Conclusion: Integrative and Complementary Practices have faced a partial and precarious inclusion in Primary Health Care.