Occupational therapy practice with rural populations from the perspective of primary health care

Abstract

Introduction: The Multidisciplinary Residency Program in Family and Community Health, with an emphasis on the health of rural populations, seeks to ensure comprehensive health care for this population, which is marked by inequities in access to social rights. Objectives: To identify the interventions developed by occupational therapists participating in the program and their theoretical foundations, and to characterize the demands of the population served. Method: This was a qualitative, descriptive, and exploratory study conducted virtually through semi-structured interviews with seven occupational therapists. Results: Professional practice within a logic different from that of care productivism contrasts with barriers to access to services and with the scarcity of resources for practice. Population demands are related to work-related illness, mental disorders, conditions resulting from chronic diseases, alcoholism, and violence against women. The main interventions developed by the occupational therapists are group activities, home visits, and health promotion and disease prevention actions, with emphasis on valuing the knowledge and ways of life of rural peoples in the construction of health care. The participants reported that the health of rural populations was scarcely addressed in undergraduate education, in addition to the difficulty of finding publications in the profession to support these interventions. Conclusion: Funding and the creation of projects for the insertion of professionals in rural areas, the inclusion of rural population health in undergraduate education, and encouragement of research on the topic may qualify the practice of occupational therapists and other health professionals in this context, toward practice that is effective, collective, contextualized, and comprehensive.