Saberes e práticas populares: o uso de plantas medicinais no cuidado e na promoção da saúde

Abstract

The insertion of medicinal plants in Primary Health Care (PHC) is based on ethical-political bets that underlie shared care, network fostering, social development and the appreciation of popular knowledge. The inclusion of these practices as a health promotion strategy promotes the improvement of the quality of health care and allows for the increment of different approaches. This also strengthens the principle of comprehensive care and expands therapeutic options for users of the Unified Health System (SUS). This research-intervention, qualitative and descriptive, sought to map experiences developed in the municipality of Divino de São Lourenço/ES, Patrimony District of Penha, in relation to the use of medicinal plants and their articulation with SUS in PHC. The objective was to foster dialogue between health workers, managers and users. As methodological tools we used: field diary, conducting interviews with semi-structured script and the conversation wheel. Professionals from the Family Health Strategy (n=15), users (n=10) and local experts on medicinal plants (n=5), consented through the Free and Informed Consent Term (TCLE), were interviewed. This investigation mainly produced devices for analyzing health training practices and processes. It became clear that, to overcome the challenges on the way to institutionalize the use of medicinal plants in the SUS, it is necessary to rethink the dynamics of training workers, the established temporality, and the ways of organizing work. By affirming medicinal plants as a device to produce networks, other ways of doing health management are admitted and they create possibilities for the inclusion of dialogical, solidary, participatory, complementary, transdisciplinary and intersectoral practices.