The SUS in vulnerable territories: reflection about violence, mental suffering and invisibilities in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

The article proposes to discuss the impacts of violence on the daily experience and living conditions of workers and users of the Unified Health System,  who live and work in urban areas designated as ‘conflagrated territories’. To encompass the  complexity of the theme, we focus on two sets of  questions, which are interrelated to different fields of  knowledge: i) territories in the field of health and,  more specifically, the descriptive conflagration; ii) the  phenomenon of urban violence – considering the  armed disputes over the power and command of drug traffic in convulsed territories from slums – and its  impacts on the work of Primary Care. Was observed an overlap of invisibilities and violence that generate  mental suffering and expose several challenges and  dilemmas in the provision of care in these territories.  It is proposed to expand the concept of convulsed  territory to encompass the social processes related to  the phenomenon of violence and to give visibility to  the need for an effective transformation of the living  and health conditions of communities. We understand the importance of interdisciplinary and  intersectoral  articulation, given that this complex social problem  impacts public health.