Rio Grande do Norte was the state chosen by the Ministry of Health in 2021 to host another edition of the Qualification Workshop for the Care Network for People with Disabilities. The event takes place at the Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience (IIN-ELS), one of the units of the Santos Dumont Institute (ISD), in Macaíba, and is the result of a partnership with the State Department of Public Health (Sesap/RN ). Throughout this Wednesday (10) and Thursday (11), panels, dialogued discussions, posters, functionality assessments and working groups representing Specialized Rehabilitation Centers (CER) across the state. 

“The Unified Health System does not work without the conception, by everyone who does it, of the network dimension it needs to have. This event brings this very strongly: the need for close interaction between all the entities that make up the health care network for people with disabilities. As much as we have the possibilities for digital interaction, visits and patient referrals, the singularity of a moment like this is different, with everyone together to think about network flow, to share successful experiences in certain services that can be replicated or transformed into other realities. This is always very rich, there is always a lot of gain when people who work on the front line of the SUS are brought together to exchange experiences”, assesses the general director of ISD, Reginaldo Freitas Jr..

The general objective of the Qualification Workshop for the Care Network for People with Disabilities is to improve the work process of the Health Care Network (RAS) points. Specific objectives include: promoting exchanges of experiences between the rehabilitation services of the PcD Network in Rio Grande do Norte, providing technical/conceptual improvement for professionals who work in rehabilitation services and aligning strategies to continue qualifying health care production in Specialized Rehabilitation Centers and Orthopedic Workshops in Rio Grande do Norte. At the end of the event, a proposal for an Intervention Plan will be drawn up to induce the evaluation of functionality with a focus on: rehabilitation services, local management (state and municipalities), in addition to federal management.

“This event is of fundamental importance. The Care Network for People with Disabilities lives in cycles and is growing. This year, we are celebrating 10 years of the National Plan for the Rights of People with Disabilities, called Viver Sem Limite. In 2019, we held a Workshop in Rondônia, and we asked Sesap/RN, which is a great partner of ours and has a very interesting network that is evolving a lot with many successful actions. One of them is CER IV, maintained by the Santos Dumont Institute. These actions are extremely relevant. When we think about caring for people with disabilities, it is a challenge. It's a public that demands a lot and it can't be any different “, declared Angelo Roberto Gonçalves, general coordinator of Health for People with Disabilities at the Ministry of Health.

As part of the event, successful experiences are being presented by the Rehabilitation Services of Rio Grande do Norte, focusing on the themes Flow and Organization of Care (with examples from the Prof. Heitor Carrilho Clinic, Child and Adult Rehabilitation Center – CRI/CRA, Educational Rehabilitation Center and Specialized Rehabilitation Center of Areia Branca) and the Biopsychosocial and Family-Centered Approach in the processes of assessment, intervention and qualified discharge (with examples from the Specialized Rehabilitation Center of the Santos Dumont Institute, Specialized Rehabilitation Center of Guamaré, of the Associação Beneficente Nossa Senhora da Conceição (ABENAÇÃO) and the Center Specialized in Rehabilitation of Caicó).

The main actions developed by the General Coordination of Health for People with Disabilities (CGSPD/DAPES/SAS/MS) of the Ministry of Health, at the national level, were also detailed. In addition to the general coordinator, Angelo Roberto Gonçalves, participating in the Workshop representing the ministerial body are employees Débora Rodrigues Nascimento, Luane Carvalho Costa, and Theresa Queiroz. 

The aspects related to the Functioning Assessment of Persons with Disabilities were presented by Luciana Castaneda Ribeiro, from the Federal Institute of Rio de Janeiro (IFRJ); by Shamyr Sulyvan de Castro, from the Federal University of Ceará (UFC); by Renata Cardoso Ferreira Vaz, from Rede PcD de Minas Gerais, by Samantha Maranhão, neuropsychologist at ISD; and Vinícius Silva, from the Brazilian Association of Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy and Intensive Care Physiotherapy (Assobrafir).

“This event, for Rio Grande do Norte, occurs at a time when we really need this strengthening. We worked on the regional plans of the network for people with disabilities in the state, some proposals were accepted by the Ministry of Health and the Specialized Rehabilitation Centers, some of them, expanded their modalities. Rio Grande do Norte is one of the states that has a very strong care network for people with disabilities, we have achieved excellent results with the expansion of services and qualifications of orthopedic workshops. The state was chosen because this work is integrated with all rehabilitation services. Even during the pandemic, we didn't stop. Rio Grande do Norte stood out and we reduced the negative impacts due to the pandemic. We were able to work and patients continued to have guaranteed care”, commented Marilene Soares, coordinator of the Health Care Network for People with Disabilities at Sesap/RN.