Angélica Martins de Souza Gonçalves

Religiosidade e espiritualidade: mecanismos de influência positiva sobre a vida e tratamento do alcoolista

Objective: Identify mechanisms of positive influence of religiosity and spirituality on the life and treatment of alcoholics, from their perspective. Methods: A qualitative exploratory study was conducted at a Psychosocial Care Center for Alcohol and Drugs, located in the interior of São Paulo. A semi-structured interview was conducted with eight alcoholics. Data were analyzed using the content analysis technique. Results: From the perception of the interviewees, religiosity and spirituality have a positive influence, bringing comfort to people in alcohol withdrawal, promoting inner power to take care of their health and change their habits, routine and behaviors, acting as complementary support to treatment and strengthening daily prayers. Conclusion: Alcoholics recognize the positive influence of religiosity and spirituality, helping them face daily life and treatment challenges. Health professionals have to be prepared to use such themes in the care routine as motivation resources.Objetivo: Identificar mecanismos de influencia positiva da religiosidade e espiritualidade na vida e tratamento, na perspectiva de alcoolistas. Metodos: Estudo qualitativo, exploratorio realizado no Centro de Atencao Psicossocial-Alcool e drogas do interior paulista. Realizada entrevista semiestruturada com oito dependentes de alcool. Os dados foram analisados por meio da tecnica de analise de conteudo. Resultados: Na percepcao dos entrevistados, a religiosidade e espiritualidade influenciam positivamente o conforto de pessoas em abstinencia; a ter forca interior para cuidar da saude; promove mudanca de habito, rotina e comportamento; serve como apoio complementar ao tratamento e fortalece exercicios diarios de oracao. Conclusao: Os alcoolistas reconhecem a influencia positiva da religiosidade e espiritualidade, ajudando-os no processo de enfrentamento dos desafios diarios da vida e do tratamento. Profissionais de saude precisam estar aptos a utilizar tais temas no cotidiano do cuidado como recursos motivacionais.

Implementation of brief intervention for alcohol by Brazilian health professionals: overcoming difficulties

Training programs and training on prevention of alcohol issues for health professionals in primary health care must be constant, enabling the review of concepts, techniques and attitudes. This study aimed to identify the difficulties of healthcare professionals to implement Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention in their health services, following completion of the training. This qualitative study was conducted with health professionals of units of the network of primary health care in a city in Sao Paulo, Brazil, undergoing training on standard screening instruments for alcohol consumption and implementation of BI through scheduled visits to their respective health units, and the data collected during the months of August to October 2012, through semistructured interviews. The data were subjected to content analysis of Bardin, thematic category, respecting the ethical standards of Resolution 196/96, as approved by the Research Ethics Committee, Opinion no. 53 021. The results showed two major themes with their respective subcategories: (1) The difficulties and problems encountered in Units, involving (1.1) human resources and infrastructure unit; (1.2) implementation of the screening Instrument for alcohol and brief intervention and (2) overcoming the difficulties and problems, seeking (2.1) the ways of improving dissemination of knowledge; (2.2) insertion strategies of the instrument and Brief Intervention in the health service. It was concluded that there is need for greater investment in continuing education to all health staff and in supervision, evaluation and ongoing monitoring of the process of implementing such strategies.

Brief intervention for the problems related to the use of alcohol: utilization among nurses

A brief intervention is a simple and inexpensive resource that can be used by several professionals in different healthcare contexts. The present study aims to develop a reflection about the application of brief intervention and it utilization by nurses in a real-world work context. It recognized the importance of nurses’ performance on preventive actions, especially those acting under the auspices of primary care. The application of strategies for diagnosis and brief intervention is especially useful to reduce problems caused by alcohol use, because it can reach a large segment of the population before the individual has become alcohol dependent. Appropriate situations to consider the application of screening and brief intervention by nurses would be: during nursing consultation for adults users or the elderly, even if the consultation has been scheduled for another purpose; during activities aimed to draw peoples awareness of a health topic (e.g., campaigns held in public places); during home visits; during groups (e.g., those for pregnant women or people with hypertension or diabetes). In this context, nurses should be taught the specific technologies and approaches to screening and brief intervention, but in a straightforward manner that allows its use by professionals without specialized formation.