O suicídio nos cenários da Atenção Básica à Saúde do Seridó do RN

Abstract

Introduction: Suicide is a public health problem worldwide and is one of the four main causes of death among people aged between 15 and 44 years. Due to the increase in suicide rates in Brazil and in the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the development of research related to the topic as a prevention of the phenomenon. Objective: To measure attitudes and knowledge of health professionals in Primary Care (AB) towards suicide, as well as to analyze the perception of these professionals about the phenomenon and its implications. Methodology: This is a quanti-quali study carried out in the municipalities of Caicó and Currais Novos, belonging to the Seridó region of Rio Grande do Norte, with professionals from the Family Health Strategy and the Extended Nucleus of Family Health and Primary Care . Social conditions, habits and lifestyle, clinical aspects and obstetric history were investigated. In the first moment, 140 professionals from the Family Health Strategy participated, where 107 were CHA, 19 nurses, 2 doctors, 2 nursing technicians, 3 physical educators, 4 Social Assistants and 3 psychologists who answered the following instruments: Knowledge and Skills Questionnaire Suicide Prevention Clinics; Questionnaire on Attitudes towards Suicidal Behavior. In the second moment, 10 FHS professionals were interviewed. The survey was approved under the CAAE number: 00467618.5.0000.5568. Results: The average age of the participants was 38.27 (SD = 8.5) years and the monthly income was R $ 1905.81 (SD = 1737.07). Higher level professionals showed more positive attitudes in the right factor (p = 0.007) and feelings (p = 0.005) when compared to middle level professionals. The average rate of correct answers in the items of the questionnaire of knowledge / clinical skills in suicide prevention was 40%. In the thematic content analysis, five categories emerged: Training as an instrumentalization factor for health professionals: “the look changes”; Understanding the multi-determination of suicide: “It is a set of factors”; The feeling of helplessness towards the suicidal patient: “I felt a little useless”; Welcoming and continent of suicide in Primary Care: “try to comfort him with words”; Bottlenecks related to service management: “services could be better managed”. Conclusion: The present study found that the level of training of professionals influences attitudes towards suicide as well as the feeling towards the patient. That said, there is a need to build intervention strategies aimed at AB professionals, specifically for continuing health education about suicide.