Strategic planning in the health promotion of the elderly: an academy-service-community integration experience

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Health planning can be understood as a device for systematizing actions and facilitating the elaboration of work processes, as well as for the training of health professionals engaged in the organization of the Unified Health System. OBJECTIVE: To discuss the involvement of several social actors in the collective construction of Situational Strategic Planning in a curricular component of health graduation courses and to highlight potential benefits of this process. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The students had theoretical basis about the Unified Health System, Health Promotion, Epidemiology, Health Planning and Popular Education during the three semesters of the above mentioned curricular component. In the second semester, a situational diagnosis was made of a group of elderly people of USF. Based on this diagnosis, in the third semester, along with the USF team, teachers and the elderly from the group, Situational Strategic Planning (PES), according to Carlos Matus, of community interventions based on Popular Health Education was carried out. RESULTS: The PES, with the participation of all the actors, made possible the horizontality of the relations during the process, from the planning to the execution of the activities. Five community interventions were carried out with the elderly, with subsequent evaluation and monitoring. CONCLUSION: The results point to the potential role of this integrative practice and the importance of experiencing SUS since the beginning of the academic course.