HEALTH EDUCATION: PATIENT, PHYSICIAN, AND THEIR REFLECTIONS ON POPULATION HEALTH

Introduction and Objective: The approval of National Policy of Medicinal Plants and Herbal Medicines in June, 2006 leads actions to assure the safe access and rational use of medicinal plants in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The supply of medicinal plants and herbal medicines added to actions related to the concept of Health Education, focusing Primary Health Care of Public Health System users as scope of an interdisciplinary team, was set as a key strategy for achieving the goals : - to promote patient awareness of its participation and responsibility in the health-disease process through the recognition of their difficulties, developing new skills and strategies to create self-care habit; - the aggregation of scientific knowledge to popular wisdom valuing the exchange of experiences. Method: Development of user groups with appreciation of folk wisdom, cultivation workshops, homemade remedy and healthy feeding. Lectures for specific groups of users. Training physicians for the correct prescription of medicinal plants and herbal medicines, and involvement of other professionals within the Technical Department of Integrative and Complementary Practices Results and Conclusions: It has been found the improving of life quality of patients and adherence increasing to the proposed treatments. It was also observed an improvement of quality of the professional prescriptions with increasing number of prescribed herbal and adoption of non-drug therapies.