Integrality in the health care perspective: an experience of the Unified Health System in Brazil

Starting with a discussion of the biomedical model and its implications in the shaping of healthcare professionals and health practices, this article analyzes the concept of integrality as associated with the Unified Health System (SUS) [Sistema Unico de Salud] in Brazil. Particular attention is paid to the disputes regarding the meaning of integrality and the ways of putting the concept into practice in everyday health care work. Based in a research study conducted at the national level, the authors suggest two aspects crucial to fostering integrality: an ethical-political project founded in the recognition that other people's lives are worthwhile and enriching; as well as the existence of additional spaces conducive to discovering diverse ways of producing life, in which integrality in health care is also possible and powerful. The authors affirm the relevance of this process as a contribution to the continual construction of the SUS in Brazil.