The drug problem is a reality in Brazil, and a challenge not only to the state from the perspective of public policy, but also to health professionals, committed and focused on care for each other. The project "Pathways of Care" is a partnership between the Ministry of Health, Institute of Communication and Scientific and Technological Information in Health (Icict/ Fiocruz) and the Conceição Hospital Group, with the support of Fiotec, which aims to train about 300 thousand community health workers (ASCs) and nursing assistants and technicians (ATENFs) to act in approach and acceptance of drug users and their families.

Involving the training of over 290 thousand professionals, the project has multiple facets and immense social importance for health. "The Pathways of Care has a differential and a great logistics. It requires a lot of agility and work and has challenged us daily. It is very important for us to support the work of this magnitude", said the chief executive officer of Fiotec, Mauricio Zuma, in an interview to the project site.

According to a spokesperson for the project, Fiotec is the lead partner in the singular but innovative effort, in its proportions, to provide classroom training to more distant municipalities. More of a partnership, the support of Fiotec the project has provided learning for both sides. "The mobilization is very large and the direct participation of our general manager, Adilson Gomes dos Santos, is an unprecedented fact. He has participated in many meetings with Cristina Guimarães [project coordinator] and followed everything closely. No project deserved much attention to achieve success and the expected result, "said the chief executive officer.

So far, 101 coaches and 1,606 tutors have been trained. The estimated project goal is to train 290,760 students between community health workers and nursing assistants and technicians. By the end of May this year, 2,128 classes had been prepared, with the occupation of 81.484 jobs between graduates and students in training.

Profile of formations

The project is committed to the formation of three profiles of professionals: learning mentors, tutors and ACSs and ATENFs.Mentors undergo a training of 32h, and will be responsible for monitoring the distance tutors. Tutors undergo a training of 120h (40h face-to-face and 80h accompanied by advisors). In turn, tutors are responsible for trainingACSs and ATENFs, face-to-face and in classes of 40 students, with a workload of 60 hours, with two thirds of the time dedicated to classroom and 1/3 for observations and field experiences.

A group of educators, researchers with recognized competence on and participation in the theme, participated in the preparation of teaching materials developed for the course.

Project progress

The project is in its third stage. The current challenge is to design a strategy of regionalization of the project, which aims to bring more and more the formation of the specificities of the territory and the local context of health. Going forward, the regionalization is defended and has been articulated as the sustainability strategy of the "Pathways of Care".

* With information from the press office of the project