Autocuidado e consciência corporal de agentes comunitárias de saúde: produções sociopoéticas

Abstract

Community Health Agents (CHAs) are fundamental professionals in the Family HealthStrategy (FHS), within the context of Primary Health Care (PHC). In addition to acting as a link between the community and health services, these women assume diverse social roles, prioritizing care for others. Understanding body awareness as a fundamental path to self-care, this study aimed to produce concepts about self-care based on the body awareness of CHAs. The chosen method was sociopoetics, a qualitative approach that considers research participants as co-researchers, constituting a research group responsible for the collective production of knowledge. The research group consisted of fifteen CHAs from the César Cals de Oliveira Primary Health Care Unit in Fortaleza, Ceará. Data production took place in five workshops: one negotiation workshop, three concept production workshops, and one counteranalysis workshop. The data were produced through bodily experiences, guided meditation, and artistic resources, and analyzed using classificatory, cross-sectional, researcher-group, and philosophical analyses. The concepts produced were termed "confetti," understood in sociopoetics as concepts traversed by affects. The confetti produced were Accelerated Body, Forgotten Body, Supporting Body, Controlling Body, Shaking, Faith Body, Body/Head, Sense Body, Inhabited Body, and Freedom Body. These confetti were organized into four blocks. The first brought together Accelerated Body, Forgotten Body, Supporting Body, and Controlling Body, related to daily life, the demands of the Community Health Agents (CHAs), and the ways in which they experience care, the body, and their routines. The second grouped the confetti Shaking and Faith Body, expressing strategies used to cope with life's hardships. The third presented the confetti Body/Head, related to psychic suffering and the relationship between body and mind. The fourth section brought together the concepts of Body Sense, Inhabited Body, and Body Freedom, associated with bodily perceptions and the understanding of self-care as a possibility for change in the relationship with oneself. It concludes that body awareness fostered the production of new meanings about self-care, broadening the understanding of the Community Health Agents (CHAs) regarding self-care and health in a holistic way. These reflections have repercussions not only on a personal level, but also on the care relationships developed in the territory and on the strengthening of Family Health Strategy (FHS) practices, contributing to more sustainable ways of caring for the community.