Healthy communities: a broad initiative to change the curative logic for greater care for chronic diseases

Introduction: The concept of healthy communities, in turn, emerged in 1986 as a social development initiative whose centrality involves health and its multiple determinations. For a long time this nature of projects was associated with the ideas of the new Public Health or also called social production of health linked to an international movement. Among the challenges of the new century recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) is the increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases in line with a more vulnerable daily life. The medical sector's concern regarding this trend is based on the limitations of the medical consultation, which does not guarantee adequate control of the disease in the patient's daily life. This is reflected in the poor health control of coronary, hypertensive and diabetic patients, who often lack the necessary knowledge to carry out their own care. Faced with this, the self-care policy proved to be efficient in maintaining well-being in the popular daily life and has been consolidating health as a form of empowerment and individuality. Objective: The objective of the study was to report the experience and demonstrate the elaboration process - in all its stages until distribution - of printed and digital educational booklets, these carried out in favor of the individual's autonomy with regard to your own health. Materials and methods: Having said that, the present work deals with the experience of the first broad initiative in favor of the Healthy Cities Movement carried out by students of the Faculty of Medicine of Catanduva, thus delineating the process of elaboration, preparation and distribution of educational materials made based on pedagogical guidelines and philosophical, addressing 22 different themes, these distributed: half in printed format and half online. In this case, configuring the report of an activity with an educational purpose only, the article waived the approval of the Ethics Committee under the legal guidelines of Resolution Nº 510/2016. Results: Despite being a primarily quantitative study, it was possible to observe nuances in receptivity, with a predominance of curiosity and the presence of doubts mentioned by distributors. 250 booklets were obtained for manual delivery, made with the participation of another 22 leagues. Conclusion: As a result of old habits in the health sector, a noticeable decrease in the active participation of individuals and the community in their own health was noticeable, which would lead to a greater dependence on specialized advice from doctors and the institutionalized care of acute illnesses. It is known that the present study deals with an essentially quantitative initiative, despite this, it is possible to observe its importance in detecting not only resistance to certain themes, but also the great prevalence of doubts in relation to them. In view of this, the need for popular familiarization was raised through new projects and the construction of links during distribution that allow greater security and favor the adoption of the measures communicated. Finally, the project highlighted the small number of projects of this nature, but also a small number carried out through the area of medicine and in such an integrated and broad way, thus confirming the need for more related studies.