Vulnerable cares: an etnography in a CAPS AD

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1981-3341.pontourbe.2026.241404

Keywords:

Drug Use, Care, CAPS AD

Abstract

The theme of this text is the daily challenge of caring for drug users in the context of social assistance and health services. Our reflection is guided by Gini's story, but also by ethnographies conducted by the authors in dialogue with anthropological research on crack use at the interface between homelessness and the health network. The article addresses how people who use drugs and are often homeless challenge ways of thinking about and promoting care, even questioning the limits of the capacity to care. In addition to developing the argument, the article also invites to imagine less moralizing, less frustrating, more careful ways of sustaining life amid the radical nature of the drug experience.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

  • João Balieiro Bardy, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

    PhD candidate in Anthropology at the Graduate Program in Sociology and Anthropology (PPGSA) at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ); holds a Master’s degree in Social Anthropology from the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology (PPGAS) at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp); and a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences (IFCH) at Unicamp. He is a researcher with the CNPq-registered research groups LEIC/UFRJ (Laboratory of Ethnographies and Knowledge Interfaces at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) and Passagens/UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro). He is currently conducting research titled "The Social Life of Generic Medicines in Brazil: State, Market, and Health," under the supervision of Rodrigo Toniol (Graduate Program in Ethnography and Cultural Critique, PPGECC/UFRJ), investigating how value is produced and mobilized by generic medicines throughout their social life in Brazil. In 2025, he was awarded a Dissertation Fieldwork Grant by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. During his Master’s studies, he conducted an ethnography at a CAPS AD (Psychosocial Care Center for Alcohol and Drugs) in the municipality of Campinas, under the supervision of Taniele Cristina Rui (PPGAS/Unicamp), with funding provided jointly by CAPES and FAPESP.

  • Taniele Cristina Rui, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP)

    Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp). She currently serves as the coordinator of the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology at Unicamp. She also coordinates the Human Rights Commission of the Brazilian Association of Anthropology (2019–present) and the "Cities" research track within the Doctoral Program in Social Sciences at Unicamp (2017–present). She holds a PhD (2012) and an MA (2007) in Social Anthropology from Unicamp, as well as a bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences (2004) from the same institution. She is the author of *Nas tramas do crack: etnografia da abjeção* (recipient of the 2013 CAPES Thesis Award and an Honorable Mention for the 2015 SLACA Book Prize from the Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology) and co-editor of *Novas Faces da Vida nas Ruas* (a finalist for the 2017 Jabuti Award). Her work focuses on ethnographic research into precarious lives and extreme situations, conducting cross-cutting investigations into urban poverty, vulnerability, and marginality. Her empirical expertise lies in the political intersections between life on the streets, drug use, peripheral urban areas, and various social assistance, public health, and punitive systems—including prisons, juvenile socio-educational measures, therapeutic communities, and forensic psychiatric hospitals. She leads two research projects funded by FAPESP: one examining the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the daily lives of low-income families in Brazil, and another investigating the rights-protection system for children and adolescents in the context of child labor. She is a member of the Center for Urban Ethnographies (CEBRAP) and REMA (a research network focused on motherhoods that are deprived, violated, or subjected to violence, supported by CNPq).

References

BARDY, João. Vírus, cachimbos e cuidados: uma etnografia sobre o cuidado e as drogas na pandemia de Covid. Mestre em Antropologia Social—Campinas: Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 23 fev. 2022.

BELLACASA, Maria Puig de la. O pensamento disruptivo do cuidado. Anuário Antropológico, vol.48, n.1, 2023.

BOURGOIS, Philippe I.; SCHONBERG, Jeff. Righteous dopefiend. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.

DAS, Veena. Aflição: saúde, doença e pobreza. Ed. Unifesp, 2022.

EMERICH, Bruno. ONOCKO CAMPOS, Rosana. PASSOS, Eduardo. “Direitos na Loucura: o que dizem usuários e gestores dos Centros de Atenção Psicossocial (CAPS)”. Revista Interface, 18 (51), 2014. Disponível em: scielo.br/j/icse/a/3YjbJdQpYMkQmKTdMZ7X7pD/?format=pdf&lang=pt

EPELE, María. 2012. “Sobre o cuidado de outros em contextos de pobreza, uso de drogas e marginalização”. Mana. 2012, vol.18, n.2, pp.247-268. Disponível em: https://www.scielo.br/j/mana/a/FFkmyNwMxM6BnCHdgmChGgb/?format=html&lang=pt

FAZZIONI, Natalia. Nascer e morrer no Complexo do Alemão: políticas de saúde e arranjos do cuidado. Tese de Doutorado, UFRJ, 2018.

FONSECA, Claudia Lee Williams. Família, fofoca e honra: etnografia de relações de gênero e violência em grupos populares. Ed. da UFRGS, 2000.

GARCIA, Marcos Roberto Vieira et al. Contrarreforma psiquiátrica brasileira e medicalização do sofrimento mental na pandemia de Covid-19. Revista Em Pauta: teoria social e realidade contemporânea, v. 20, n. 49, 2022.

GUIMARÃES, Thaís de Andrade Alves; DOS SANTOS ROSA, Lucia Cristina. A remanicomialização do cuidado em saúde mental no Brasil no período de 2010-2019: análise de uma conjuntura antirreformista. O Social em Questão, v. 21, n. 44, p. 111-138, 2019.

KINKER, Fernando. “Um olhar crítico sobre os projetos terapêuticos singulares”. Cadernos Brasileiros de Terapia Ocupacional, 24 (2), 2016. Disponível em: Um olhar crítico sobre os projetos terapêuticos singulares/A critical view on singular therapeutic projects | Cadernos Brasileiros de Terapia Ocupacional

LACERDA, Paula. Meninos de Altamira: violência, “luta” política e administração pública. Rio de Janeiro: Garamond, 2015.

MEDEIROS, Victor Hugo. MOREIRA, Maria Inês Badaró. “Os sentidos dos cuidados em saúde mental a partir do encontro com usuários de um CAPS”. Revista Saúde e Sociedade 31 (1), dezembro 2022. Disponível em: https://www.scielosp.org/article/sausoc/2022.v31n1/e210094/

MOL, Annemarie. The body multiple: Ontology in medical practice. Duke University Press, 2002.

PASSARINHO, José Guilherme Nogueira. Retrocessos na política nacional de Saúde Mental: consequências para o paradigma psicossocial. Revista Em Pauta: teoria social e realidade contemporânea, v. 20, n. 49, 2022.

POLICARPO, Frederico. O consumo de drogas e seus controles: uma perspectiva comparada entre as cidades do Rio de Janeiro (BR) e São Francisco (EUA). Tese de Doutorado, Universidade Federal Fluminense, 2013.

RUI, Taniele. Nas tramas do crack: etnografia da abjeção. Editora Terceiro Nome/ Fapesp, 2014.

RUI, Taniele. “Por entre territórios visíveis e invisibilizados: mercados ilícitos e cracolândias de SP e Rio de Janeiro”. Revista Novos Estudos Cebrap, 38 (3), 2019.

SPIVAK, Gayatri Chakravorty. Pode o subalterno falar?. UFMG, 2010.

SOLATERRAR, Ueslei. (Sobre)viver na zona de quase-morte: o (des)fazer do cuidado em saúde mental a pessoas negras no cotidiano pandêmico da Baixada Fluminense. Tese de doutorado, UERJ, 2024.

Downloads

Published

2026-11-03

Issue

Vol. 34 No. 1 (2026)

Section

Dossiê “Drogas e Antropologia”

How to Cite

Bardy, J. B., & Rui, T. C. (2026). Vulnerable cares: an etnography in a CAPS AD. Ponto Urbe, 34(1), e241404. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1981-3341.pontourbe.2026.241404