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.