Theoretical-methodological framework, functions, and effects of institutional support in health within the Brazilian National Health System (SUS)

Abstract

Institutional support arrangements have stood out as an innovative mode of management. This study aimed to summarize and analyze the theoretical-methodological framework and the effects of institutional support within the Unified Health System (SUS) and synthesize the concepts, functions, and skills of the institutional supporter. A scoping review was undertaken on several scientific bases, retrieving 89 publications, the analysis of which indicated that the concepts and supporting methods are anchored in the Paideia Method, which aims to democratize management. Institutional supporters, with this objective, articulate different ways of managing the micropolitics of collective spaces, supporting the movement to expand the decentralization of power and generate autonomy. The effects of its application express processes of institutional democratization, which expand the autonomy of subjects in decision-making processes, offer critical reflection and understanding of the established processes, and new ways of producing health to break with repetitive, crystallized, and chronic health practices. The published evidence prohibits us to reflect on the macro- and microinstitutional limits concretely found in the implementation of support, posing the challenge of scientifically entering the practices of socialization of power resources operated by the support function.