Primary health care and the specialized care services to women in situation of violence: expectations and mismatches in the voice of professionals

Abstract

Networking plays a central role in assisting women in situations of violence. This study analyzes how different the work perspectives are for Primary Care professionals and specialized services professionals in the areas of social and law assistance, and public security in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 16 professionals from specialized services and 46 from the health sector. The axes for a thematic analysis were: what professionals know and think about services other than their own; their performance based on that; and their expectations. The findings revealed insufficient knowledge of the different services, resulting in communication difficulties as well as wrong referrals to other services, based on how other services would ideally work. We concluded that each sector is autonomous and its services start from its own field of action to define what would be best for women. The set works more like a mesh of services than a network.