Community Agents: mudanças entre as edições

Mediation, therefore, is a keyword in the ACS’s universe of operation. This mediation takes place in their daily lives, while walking the streets, visiting families, going to and from the Health Clinic, talking to residents, counseling and being counseled - all in all, interacting with the collectivity that is their own community. It is then possible to perceive their double everyday condition: they are present both in the social and physical spaces. And from the moment they wear their vest, they become an agent, that is, one who performs duties - in this case in favor of healthcare and/or with the approval of healthcare. The fact that the health agent walks the streets, greets people, talks, visits houses, listens to reports, in other words, knows the public dynamics (in terms of  the open space of the streets) as well as the private dynamics (the internal environment of the house and its residents). thus crossing other domains beyond the health issue: extend their mediation role to different spheres of the organization of social life. Spread across different spaces in the city, health agents are present mainly in popular territories, including favelas. Despite their recognized role in mediating between the community and health services, or between different types of knowledge (popular and technical), it is clear that these agents go beyond their institutional role. The actions these agents carry out place them as “users of the city”, as those who live and utilize services - actions aimed at improving their living conditions in the search for greater coverage of public and private facilities. In the ambiguity between their condition as  residents and as  'public' agents lies the richness of their performance, as far as these elements provide the realization of an expanded urban-related concept of health, one that has to do with the social dynamics of the community.