On caring: preliminaries of a comparative study of primary health care in Brazil/Canada

Abstract

This text has three basic objectives: First it focuses on the processes of policy-making and institution-building in Primary Health Care in Brazil and Canada. The second objective is a preliminary appraisal of the basic, common, and differentiating points between the two countries with regard to such processes; finally, the third objective seeks to briefly discuss the role of Brazilian and Canadian physical therapists in health care teams, comprised by allied health professionals. The first part of this study highlights PHC in Brazil, with a particular interest in the ways and means adopted by recent health assistance models that emphasized, or believed in, the role of the physical therapist. The next section deals with PHC in Canada, in a summarized way. The recent Brazilian and Canadian literature on this central topic was important for this text; in addition official documents and discussion papers were used. In conclusion, the authors claim that PHC in both countries, including many other regions of the developed and developing world, require the integration of services into a systemic (though not asphyxiating) matrix. The authors also stress the need for health promotion nationwide, and, in particular, a special attention to the role of physical therapists in the operation of health care teams in family health and PHC.