O autismo como deficiência: impactos sobre o trabalho das equipes dos Centros de Atenção Psicossocial Infanto-Juvenil.

Abstract

The discussion about the comprehension of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as a mental disability and the changes evolved in its treatment occur on a worldwide proportion in recent years. This debate contemplates several social actors: health professionals, researchers, parents' associations and the autists themselves. In this context, Brazil promulgated Law 12,762 on December 27, 2012, which recognizes autism as a disability for all legal purposes, giving them the same social rights already provided for those with intellectual, physical, motor disabilities and so on. Beyond these rights, that law permited the debate about the ways in which such individuals are being covered by the Brazilian public health system. The objective of this research, therefore, is to investigate the impact of the legal recognition of the ASD as a disability on the clinical and social assistance services and its consequences on the public health units that doesn t work with a disability logic model: the CAPSi (Psychosocial Care Centers for Children and Adolescents). For this purpose, focus groups were carried out with professionals from 3 (three) CAPSi in the city of Rio de Janeiro, selected based on criteria of time of operation and representative coverage of different population profiles of the municipality. The data obtained showed some impacts on the work of every group researched. Such as: need of rediscussion of the posture regarding the requests of medical reports; improvement of intersectorality and territoriality; need for clearer dissemination of CAPSi principles and guidelines, both for parents and for other sectors of care, such as schools, health services and social assistance. Dissonant results were also found in the different groups, such as: internal divergences about the nature of autism; greater openness to some protocol treatment techniques; engagement in the activism for certain autistic rights; acceptance of autism as disability for legal purposes ; and also the self-questioning about the diagnostic process in the CAPSi.