Itinerário terapêutico da criança com microcefalia na rede de atenção à saúde

Abstract

Introduction: The microcephaly epidemic has brought about the need to restructure the Health Care Network to try to meet the demands inherent to this condition. The therapeutic itinerary refers to the search for health care and describes the routines used to solve health problems. Objectives: To investigate the therapeutic itinerary of the child with microcephaly in the Health Care Networks of the city of João PessoaParaíba, as well as to describe the mothers' experience in relation to the itinerary for the treatment of their children. Method: This is a qualitative research, in which the Thematic Oral History technique was used with ten mothers of children with microcephaly, through the recorded interview. The scenario of the study was a philanthropic institution. The scenario of data collection was a philanthropic institution and with data collected from April to August 2017. The empirical material was submitted to the thematic content analysis technique. This research was approved by the Ethics Committee with an opinion no. 2,118,590 and CAAE nº 61498116.0.0000.5183. Results and discussion: There were gaps in the therapeutic itinerary of the child with microcephaly, such as difficulty in accessing health services, lack of follow-up for primary health care, concomitant use of several reference institutions, and fragmentation of services. The maternal experience in the search for services for the treatment of their children is marked by stress and fatigue and often does not have a solidified social-emotional support network. Final considerations: The itinerary of children with microcephaly is happening in an incipient way because they are not receiving integral care in the reference services. Thus, it is necessary to develop and implement efficient actions for optimizing the available services. By this way, the resolutive care in a timely manner for stimulation of neuropsychomotor development is achieved.