Anti-poverty policies in Brazil: Reviewing the past ten years

This article reviews the main anti-poverty policies implemented in Brazil from the early 1990s to the early 2000s. These include focused and universal policies - such as education and health care - as well as the rural development, a 'middle ground' policy. Though the inter-municipal consortium, a new institutional arrangement gathering municipalities together, has emerged as a promising policy implementation tool, anti-poverty policies have faced implementation difficulties. Lack of coordination between different programs, even within the same policy area, has impaired their effectiveness. As a consequence, compensatory programs, based on monetary transfers to poor families, which face fewer implementation problems, have become the dominant type of anti-poverty policies in Brazil. Despite these shortcomings, a small Brazilian state, Santa Catarina, was able to reduce by 46 percent the number of individuals living in poverty in just ten years. This is a sign that fighting poverty can, after all, be a feasible endeavor. © 2004 IIAS, SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi).

Social disparity and oral health

There is a clear reported association between social disparity and oral health, for example, between dental caries and malnutrition in children. This fact is detected in several studies, and also found amongst the Brazilian population. However, several efforts have been made to improve the quality of life of the population and to achieve the 2015 Millennium Development Goals. Oral health is a branch to be improved among these goals. The Brazilian experience has been drawing the attention of authorities, insofar as there have been direct improvements in oral health through state oral health programs, and also indirect results by improving the quality of life of the population. Included within the Brazilian oral health programs are the Family Health Program and Smiling Brazil Program. The former is a global healthcare program which involves primary oral healthcare, while the latter is a specialized oral care program. Among the social programs that would indirectly improve oral health are Family Stipend and the Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience of Natal (ELS-IINN). In conclusion, although oral health problems are related to socioeconomic factors, the implementation of primary oral health programs and programs to improve the population's quality of life may directly or indirectly improve the oral health scenario. This fact is being observed in Brazil, where the oral health policies have changed, and social programs have been implemented.

Aplicação da técnica de grupo focal em pesquisa da Rede-SANS sobre as ações de alimentação e nutrição na atenção básica em saúde

Focus groups are seen as important tools in qualitative research for evaluating projects aimed at articulating social networks and movements. Six focus groups were held as one of the stages in research as part of the Food Safety and Sustainable Nutrition Project (SANS). This social network articulates the academic world with social movements and government in defense of the human right to suitable nutrition. This report is aimed at discussing the experience of applying focus groups to the investigation of perceptions by health professionals of activities related to food and nutrition in basic health care. These groups made it possible to bring together 52 professionals from 13 municipalities in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, and they exchanged experiences and debated issues related to food safety in the area of health care. The group discussions identified eating, nutrition vigilance and intersectoriality as emerging topics. The focus group technique proved to be a suitable tool for investigating the topic quickly and in depth, with a large number of professionals working in different contexts. In fact, the discussions went beyond the objectives of the research, since the group work made it possible to strengthen the process of articulation carried out by a network that promoting local measures in food safety and sustainable nutrition.

Perception and Attitude About Systemic Health and Periodontal Disease Among Dentistry Undergraduates

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Prevalence of health promotion programs in primary health care units in Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Characteristics of physical activity programs in the Brazilian primary health care system

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Healthcare-associated infections: challenges to public health in Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

A interface da arte e do bem-estar na promoção da saúde na terceira idade

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Ampliação da capacidade de análise: a produção de sentidos na Política Nacional de Humanização

The article refers to the collective construction performed from the Multicentric Research on Humanization Training of SUS. It is about production and building consensus on different interpretations of the superfamily "expansion of the analysis capability." The methodological approach is related to the creation of analytical reports coming from four sources: Intervention Plans built at the time of training courses offered in three states (Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and São Paulo) by the institutional supporters in training.Also, there were questionnaires answered via Form-SUS by graduated supporters after four years of the course closing; data and analysis produced by supporters in focus groups and interviews, conducted as the research final stage in the three states.Thus, considering the inclusive methodological framework not only from the courses, but also the research that evaluated them, the participants (graduates from the training courses) produced data and started to play the active role of researchers/panelists because they got “surprised" by partial analyzes.Therefore, the article discusses the analysis capability of demand required by supporters before their working areas and the relationship of that capability with concepts and elements of Institutional Analysis.It was possible to highlight the inseparability between demands of emergency and the exercise of being next to another person and his/her interests. The conclusion is that the methodology proposed by the course allowed the supporters in training to stimulate and develop a critical capacity on their work.However, it is noticed that the expansion of such analytical capability often remained linked to the supporter, without the contagion of other workers in the territories.It was also possible to see that the course and political framework of PNH could equip the supporters, promoting empowerment from their analysis, which is essential to the interventions performance.

The Flower Workshop: a social self-organizing practice in mental health nursing

Fundação de Apoio à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Avaliação da qualidade de vida de idosos participantes e não participantes de grupo de convívio

Pós-graduação em Enfermagem (mestrado profissional) - FMB

A saúde mental do trabalhador: estudo sobre os afastamentos por transtornos mentais

Pós-graduação em Planejamento e Análise de Políticas Públicas - FCHS

Políticas públicas de inclusão na educação infantil: um estudo em creches do município de Franca

Pós-graduação em Planejamento e Análise de Políticas Públicas - FCHS