Eye healthcare and the School Health Program: a documentary research

Abstract

Eye healthcare interventions and prevention of blindness at school have been developed since the last century in Brazil, following  changes in models of care and health at  school. This is a qualitative research of  documentary analysis that aimed to analyze the normative documents on the  subject of eye health in schools in Brazil, especially  within the scope of the School Health  Program (PSE) and the historical trajectory  of eye healthcare policies. For data  treatment, content analysis was adopted, and the corpus of the study consisted of 48  normative acts. Among the normative acts,  it was possible to identify Presidential  Decrees, Public Consultations, Ministerial  Decrees, and Interministerial Decrees. It became evident that a comprehensive and  coordinated eye healthcare is still a  challenge for the Unified Health System  (SUS) due to the interruption of initiatives  that guarantee access to healthcare and the little incentive to carry out these practices in detriment of other PSE actions. It was  also  found that the debate on eye healthcare  actions in the school environment dates  back to the National Policy of Care in Ophthalmology, revealing a pioneering  work on the subject in Primary Health Care.