Research Maps Primary Health Care Programs for Lesbian and Bisexual Women

The study was conducted in the municipalities of Manaus, Barentin, Itaquatiara and Manakapuro

With the support of the Government of Amazonas, through the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas (Fapeam), the study “Between Law and Access: Health Models in Lesbian and Bisexual Primary Care in Four Municipalities of Amazonas” was supported by the Research Support Program – Universal Amazonas, Public Notice No. 006/2019, which is still in progress, aims to define distinctive characteristics with regard to accessibility and care for lesbian and bisexual women in the municipalities of Manaus, Parentins, Itaquatiara, and Manakapuro.

According to the study coordinator, Professor of Social Work Course at the Federal University of Amazonas (Ufam), Dr. Lidiani de Lima Cavalcante, these women are abandoning health services due to the bias and discrimination they experience, which leads to a lack of prevention. It causes cancer that can be avoided by humanizing health policies, welcoming practices, and acknowledgment of differences.

The research aims to map the basic health care network in the four municipalities: determine the existence of women’s health care programs and characteristics related to accessibility and care for lesbian and bisexual women; To characterize the daily work of professionals with research topics, as well as the peculiarities of care; Knowledge of the challenges faced by lesbian and bisexual women with regard to the right to, access to, and maintenance of primary health care programmes; To carry out feedback on the data, through an extended meeting, with the use of awareness and guidance materials, together with the professionals of the primary health care network in the four cities surveyed.

“It is well known that, within the scope of primary care, the Unified Health System (SUS) aims for and defends the principle of universality. However, the community of bisexual women and, above all, lesbians, demands health intervention with several characteristics. Through the project, we aim to listen To these women, as well as health professionals, so that, from the perspective of practical research, we can offer health professionals in municipalities, training in the specifics of health care, referred women”, and the coordinator emphasized that the study aims to reach 70 women and 150 professionals, but it has already reached To more than 140 professionals and close to reaching 90 women.

Methodology – According to the project, the methodology applied in the study consists of hands-on research and interviews with health professionals working in primary care. With women, questionnaires are applied, for greater access to the participants. Action research, at the end of the analyzes, includes specific training on the gender, sexual diversity, and specifics of lesbian and bisexual women in primary health care, with a focus on health access and preventive examinations of sexual and reproductive rights.

“Our goal is to listen to both representatives, consider the findings and provide feedback to the community, along with suggesting training for professionals. The researcher explained that the issue of sexual diversity is a taboo, even in the 21st century, but we need to dismantle these paradigms, so that we can strengthen Inclusion in primary health care.

Support – For the project coordinator, Fapeam is of fundamental importance in furthering this research, which has the advantage of being unprecedented in the Brazilian scope as an action research covering the humanities and social sciences.

Fapeam’s view and recognition of the subject point to important pathways on the threshold of recognition of sexual diversity as a human condition, as well as in archetypes of action-think-action, as it provides opportunities not only for the development of research, but for the tangible return of society, as well as the foundation so that public authority and civil society can Think jointly of strategies for inclusion and recognition of the research audience, in the primary health care scenario,” said Lydiani, highlighting the state government’s support for relevant research in women’s health.

CAUTION- Lydiani Cavalkant notes that the study, which is still in the final stage of the field phase, also aims to draw the attention of social movements working in the field of human rights, and of women’s sexual and reproductive rights platforms, so that its champions do not abandon human rights. Health services, but can strengthen return strategies to ensure all areas of prevention, not only modalities for cancers affecting the female general population, but have full and informed access to sexually transmitted disease prevention and the right to sexual and reproductive health.

About the Program – Research Support Program – Universal Amazonas funds scientific, technological and innovative research activities, or technology transfer, in all areas of knowledge, which represent a significant contribution to the social, economic and environmental development of Amazonas in a research institution or higher educational or research center, public or private, Not-for-profit, headquartered or permanent unit in the state.