The playful as a psycho-pedagogic method: one experience in preventing youth drug dependence

This participatory action research was based on a experience of educational intervention on La Cruz and Bello Oriente (Manrique-Medellin), a marginal zone in the northeastern part of the Commune 3 in Medellin,. Colombia. In this marginal sector, psychosocial problems seem to be associated to limited educational and employment opportunities, domestic violence, illegal armed forces, sexual abuse, social discrimination, and lack of adequate public services, among others.  All these are also considered as risk factors for drug dependency.  We used a structured interview designed to identify leisure tendencies, use of free time, and tendencies in recreational activities. Data from the interview were triangulated with information collected by observation and in field work and used to build a psycho-pedagogic method based on play and leisure activities. The effects of the use of this educational intervention on the satisfaction of human needs were analyzed in light of the theory of Manfred Max-Neef. Results point out the need for new educational strategies aimed to promote creativity, solidarity, mental, physical and social health, more enthusiasm and motivation and in general, positive attitudes that help prevent drug dependence.

Primary health care. Neoliberal continuities in “person-centered care”

This paper analyzes the document on primary health care (PHC) published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2008, held to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Declaration of Alma-Ata on PHC (1). Objective: to investigate in depth the assumptions outlined in the report, in order to problematize the notion of APS and universal access to health that are made in this proposal. Methodology: using documentary analysis examines the health proposal prepared by the international body and subjected to criticism from the following areas: a) conception of health as aright or as a service. b) Criteria commodified healthcare. Results: emphasize the permanence of a neoliberal perspective on the proposals WHO health reform in this document, which needs to be discussed in contexts where neoliberalism was intense processes of inequality and exclusion, as in the case of Latin America.