PACTO’s Support Network: Following Pathways and Assemblages within the Cultural Territory

Abstract

The Artistic Compositions and Occupational Therapy Program (PACTO), under the Department of Physiotherapy, Communication Science & Disorders, and Occupational Therapy – Faculty of Medicine, USP –, operates at the interface between the fields of arts and health, with basic references in contemporary arts, psychosocial rehabilitation and production of subjectivity, in conjunction with public policies of health, culture and education. The PACTO’s Support Network prioritizes in its modus operandi the Therapeutic Accompaniment device in the process of giving support for the sociocultural participation of people in vulnerable conditions. Based on the search of desires and needs of the participants, students of Occupational Therapy accompany the movements of people assisted, linking these pathways to urban socio-cultural networks. The methodology of the training program includes: the guidance on the practical experience of students; the records of interventions, their discussion in supervision spaces; and, its articulation to theoretical studies in reading and writing groups. This article presents some of the results of this integrated experience of university extension, research and training, focusing on the events experienced by the scholarship holders of the Learning with Culture and Extension Program in the years 2011 and 2012. The activities carried out throughout the project allowed the construction of relevant discussions, valuable for training, and strengthening of Occupational Therapy in its relation to the Therapeutic Accompaniment.