O Serviço Social na saúde mental e o Técnico de Referência : possibilidades de uma atuação crítica?

Abstract

This dissertation is aimed at analyzing the Social Workers practice in anti-asylum substitutive services, in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, specifically at the Psychosocial Attention Centers (CAPS III). The main objective of this study was to identify and question the work carried out by Social Workers in mental health, stemming from the way these professionals understand their professional exercise, and considering: the socio-historical scenario in which their practice is performed, their consequences on the social-political field especially those concerning health and mental health policies; the status of Social Workers as wage earners and their working conditions; and the theoretical-political influences that have been determining this work course. It identifies and questions professional intervention in this area in order to understand whether these workers embody, or not, the critical-dialectical thinking, and whether it is viable or not to resort to a critical professional intervention in accordance with the guidelines alluded to by the current Social Work s Critical Professional Project. The research was carried out in the municipalities of Belo Horizonte, Betim, Conselheiro Lafaiete, Divinópolis, and Juiz de Fora, where the Psychosocial Attention Centers (CAPS III) or the Mental Health Reference Centers (CERSAMs) are located. On the whole, 09 health services participated in this study and 11 Social Workers were interviewed. It was possible to verify how the incorporation of the Reference Staff Member as a function, established by the organization of teamwork, gives rise to a relative subsumption of the Social Workers practice to this general and unspecific function. This study brings a debate between interprofessional work within the health scope and its fundamentals. It points a methodological pluralism as an implicit fundamental of the interdisciplinary working proposal in mental health. Lastly, it provides an inside analysis within Social Work, establishing the links between the Social Workers practice at CAPSIII/CERSAMs and the matter of incorporating the critical-dialectical thinking.