Emancipatory drug practices: building projects with Primary Healthcare workers*

Abstract

Objective: To build projects for implementing emancipatory drug practices with Primary Healthcare workers. Method: An emancipatory action research based on historical-dialectical materialism developed at the Vila Prudente/Sapopemba Health Technical Supervision of the city of São Paulo with the participation of Primary Healthcare workers (care providers and management). Results: Seventeen (17) health workers participated in sharing 13 workshops. The workshops discussed the following topics: the health needs of residents of the territories in which they operate; social dimension of drug use; limitations and contradictions of public healthcare policies and practices in the area of drugs; purpose of working in Primary Healthcare; and implementing drug evidence. Four intersectoral implementation projects were designed based on critical policy discussions. Conclusion: The emancipatory workshops enabled workers to position themselves in the health production process and capture the contradictions of this process, thereby strengthening their ability to develop and implement tools in response to health needs based on the social processes that involve the production, circulation and consumption of drugs.