Community participation for the defense and maintenance of the right to health

A social cartography of the representations of the health-disease-care process in the town of Los Hornos, Argentina

Abstract

This work originates from the Service of Programmatic Areas and Health Networks at UPA 6 in Los Hornos (La Plata). This space takes on the challenge of fostering active participation from the community in addressing their own health issues, considering that this participation is hindered by the organizational dynamics of health institutions and the biomedical care model. The objective of the research is to understand the representations of the health-illness-care process in five social organizations within the Los Hornos community. Methodologically, the research is based on the critical perspectives of Latin American social sciences to develop a social cartography and a systematization of experiences. The implementation of these tools involves a co-production of data from primary sources through mapping meetings in assemblies conducted in a workshop format. The main results identify three key dimensions in the community's health-illness-care process. First, environmental sanitation and public services are represented as issues; second, the relationship with organizations highlights their central role as health producers; and lastly, mental health is linked to the need for recreational green spaces. From this research, it is concluded that social cartography proved to be an innovative tool for capturing broad representations of the health-illness-care process, enabling the construction of a critical territorial perspective from the health provider, built with and within the community.