Integrative practices applied in chronic pain

experience report on the first year of the extension project “AcolheDOR”, underdevelopment at a federal educational institution

Abstract

Extension practices appear as plural tools in the educational context, especially when associated with the promotion of population health. The academic environ­ment is rich in knowledge and practices that, if associated with a health training concerned with transforming its microspace, can overcome its formative role and take the lead in regulating well-being within its community. This paper reports the one-year experience of an extension project that aims to promote knowledge and health services to the local public with chronic pain, through educational and intervention actions in Integrative and Complementary Health Practices (PICS). Chronic pain is a challenge for public health, as it affects a significant percentage of the adult and elderly population, reducing functional capabilities, negatively influ­encing the perception of health, in addition to the impact on mental and occupa­tional health. The adhesion of students and teachers of technical and technological health courses to the “AcolheDOR” project, associated with the participation of chronic pain sufferers in the actions promoted in this first year of existence, reveal the transformer potential of a proposal that goes beyond classroom content for a fruitful, emancipatory action of self-care, which can also restore general well-being. The main results of this extension project in its first year of execution were the sharing of knowledge about chronic pain, first among project students through research and study groups, and then to the local community through educational lectures. Furthermore, the development of an anamnesis protocol was the result of the initial stage, enabling the permanent monitoring of participants through­out the next stages of application of integrative practices. It is understood that the extension action fulfills its role of transforming the local reality by promoting health actions, health education and self-care, being a necessary instrument for educational institutions, capable of contemplating the interdisciplinarity and the inseparability between teaching, research and extension.