COMMUNITY HEALTH SERVICE - SESACOM

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: SESACOM is an academical extension Project with permanent nature, to give health assistance to resident and forwarded people from three communities in the city of Maceió, State of Alagoas (Brazil), which are involved in another minor extension project through the public health Brazilian system (SUS). METHODS: The project either gives aid to the development of epidemiological researches, with the participation of students of Medicine, Nursery, Psichology, and Dentistry, a doctor and volunteers people from the community. It takes place in the hospital of the Federal University of Alagoas and aims to give clinical assistance with preventive character, focusing the epidemiological profile of the target populations. Specifically, it aims to orientate people regarding to nursery preventive practices; to collect data about the general health history of patients; to provide a training environment for social health actions; to spread knowledge about health promotion, disease healing and prevention; to apply the rules established by SUS. The methods consist in a pre-nursery consultation, application of questionnaires and medical consultations, with educative-preventive orientation. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: We realized 800 consultations; during the project, the students analyzed patients, checking the vital signals and giving educative-preventive orientations, practicing the knowledge acquired into the classroom. During one year, three preventive campaigns were done: the prevention of breast cancer, prevention of sexually-transmitted diseases/AIDS and relevance and care with food and personal clearness. We concluded that the project was well accepted and that it deserves continuity, with the contribution of a number of new volunteers.