Home visits by Community Health Agents: professionals’ and users’ conceptions

Abstract The objective of this study was to analyse the conceptions of workers’ and users’ of the Family Health Strategy (FHS) program regarding home visits by Community Health Agents (CHAs). In this qualitative research, individual semi-structured interviews were performed with seven professionals and eighteen users from two Health and Family Units in a mid-sized city in the countryside of São Paulo and participant observation of the CHAs’ activities were carried out. Thematic content analysis revealed that, despite the social support provided by the CHAs, participants see home visits as mechanical activities with bureaucratic purposes, aimed at the individual and the disease, thus deviating from the original purpose of healthcare transformation and exposing a contradictory aspect of such work. This study broadened the view regarding home visits by CHAs and highlighted the importance of reviewing this activity, to achieve a FHS in better alignment with the premises of the Health Reform.