Community of Practice in Occupational Therapy in the Brazilian Unified Social Assistance System: arranging meetings and promoting debates in social occupational therapy

Abstract

With the growing number of occupational therapists working at the Unified Social Assistance System (SUAS) in Brazil, there has been an increasing need for education processes focusing on the critical development of professional practice in this field. From this education demand, a project was created in October 2020: “Communities of Practice in Occupational Therapy at SUAS: professional planning and construction of strategies” aiming to promote the exchange of knowledge and experiences between occupational therapists working in social assistance. This study aims to present the work possibilities and limits at SUAS from the point of view of occupational therapists who work at its units and who participated in the Community of Practice, analyzing whether and how their professional actions have been related to the social occupational therapy theoretical-methodological framework. To this end, all the recording material produced in the two project cycles from October 2020 to July 2021 was revisited. The collected information was organized in a table that grouped the themes found. Data analysis revealed two main aspects that allow the correlation of the professionals’ actions with the social occupational therapy theoretical-methodological framework, namely, the necessary interpretation of the inseparability between micro- and macro-social factors for the development of work and the professional and political dimensions of the occupational-therapeutic actions. In both debates, the social occupational therapy theoretical-methodological framework has been the guiding thread of the process, enabling a social reading and a greater understanding of technical-professional purposes within the scope of social assistance.