Care delivery to disabled people: competencies of community health agents

Resumo

Objective: to discuss concepts on disability, facilities and difficulties and report on the learning needs of Community Health Agents (CHA) to work with disabled persons in basic care. Methods: this is an exploratory and descriptive research, carried out in Crato-CE, from March to May 2008. Knowledge, previous skills and learning needs were collected from 76 out of 111 CHA who participated in an awareness seminar, using a questionnaire-type registration card. Data were submitted to the content analysis technique. The project was approved by the COMEPE-UFC (245/07). Results: ninety-two percent of the CHA who concluded steps I and II of the Technical Course for Community Health Agents indicate the need for competency development to work with disabled people and their families, related to the concepts of disability, social inclusion, health-disease process, biomedical contents, health promotion and problem monitoring actions. Conclusion: adequate care delivery to disabled people demands that health professionals develop competencies for this purpose. Community Health Agents’ position turns them into essential actors of these actions in Basic Care. There is an urgent need to develop the competencies established in the curriculum framework of the Technical Course for Community Health Agents, applied to the theme. Descriptors: disabled persons; family practice; professional competence.