Team supervision in the Family Health Program: reflections concerning the challenge of producing care

This paper analyzes an experience of supervising family health teams in the district of Ribeirao Preto. Pichon-Riviere's institutional and operational group analysis was utilized in order to facilitate self-analysis and self-management in a continuous construction-deconstruction-reconstruction process as to knowledge and practice constructing group awareness within teams and collective projects aiming at shifting team focus from the production of procedures to the production of care. We focus more on difficulties faced by supervisors in breaking the procedure production matrix than on care; in handling the social and technical division of labor in health; searching for more democratic and participative forms of work that respect differences; for coping with issues of prejudice and workers' pre-conceptions with respect to users and deconstruction of the power/ knowledge relationship; for supporting teams in their analyses of the implications as to how services are rendered, how relationships and responsibilities are established, aspects which usually remain obscure, hidden behind technical work. Aspects usually considered obstacles might actually facilitate care. They may also lead to a number of possibilities of creation and action, once analyzed by the team.