Compreensões e incompreensões sobre a oferta e ausência das Práticas Integrativas e Complementares por parte dos gestores na Atenção Primária à Saúde

Abstract

Introduction: No qualitative study was conducted with managers of Primary Health Care services to understand whether the presence or absence of Integrative and Complementary Practices in basic health units contributes to knowledge about them; Goals: to understand the perceptions of health managers about the PIC, with or without its offer, in Primary Health Care; Methods: This is a descriptive, exploratory and qualitative study, with 45 coordinators from Basic Health Units, using semi-structured interviews that were recorded, transcribed and analysed using thematic content analysis techniques; Results: Two thematic categories emerged: the managers' lack of knowledge about the Integrative and Complementary Practices in Primary Health Care; and conceptions of care on the part of the managers of the Primary Health Care services. Together, the results show even with the offer, there is a lack of knowledge both managers of these Health Units and of those who manage services with the absence of Integrative Practices and Complementary. Likewise, the conceptions of care are also similar. It was expected to find predominantly holistic definitions among the managers offering complementary therapies. However, there is still a strong predominance of Cartesian care; Conclusions: The biomedical, fragmented and hopistalocentric context guides assistance in Primary Health Care. Therefore, the offer of Integrative and Complementary Practices alone fails in making a “epistemological and assistance revolution”. There is a need for permanent education measures and to open spaces for reflection on therapeutic plurality to expand the offer of Integrative and Complementary Practices in Primary Health Care.