Enlarging health care access through an appreciation of social networks in Popular Education for Health

Abstract

A personal social network is made up of people who live in close proximity generally sharing their daily life and who are available for contact. This network takes on fundamental importance in the lives of those in the disadvantaged classes making it necessary for health professionals in primary care to be able to access the support of these networks. Processes of Popular* Education usually includes these actors. This study aims to analyze the meaning of these personal social networks’ value in the practice of Popular Education for Health, encouraging the interaction between health professionals and social networks with respect to greater integration for health activities. Hence an action research project with two phases was developed consisting first of mapping of social networks and then activating/mobilizing the social networks through meetings and personal contacts. The activities of Popular Education for Health are a very fertile ground for working with social networks. In turn, the social networks can contribute to the widening of the activities of Popular Education in Health, identifying paths for intervention that bring greater awareness, programmatically and theoretically, of those social networks in activities (programs) contributing to more dynamic primary care outreach.