Modes of thinking of the professionals of the health academy program about health and disease and their implications in actions of health promotion

Abstract

The Health Academy Program was created to contribute to health promotion, care production and improvement of access to the practice of physical activity, based on the holistic view of care. Aim: to understand the HAP professionals’ representations about health/disease and its implications for health promotion activities. A qualitative study based on the theory of Social Representations, understanding them as the points of view, which are explicit in human action. In-depth interviews with physical education professionals from the PAS of Belo Horizonte were interpreted by the Structural Analysis of Narration. Results: There are central representations that define health as the opposite of disease, and, peripherally, health is more than absence of disease. The biomedical model coexists with viewpoints that expand health practice, focused on the construction of health promotion as a good and a right. The representations remain parallel, use the official discourse that created the Program, supported by Collective Health, and the discourse of science and common sense, supported by Biology. The implication of the professional in the actions is paradoxical, and requires improvements in their training to continue the paradigm shift in health care.