Family Health Program.

The Unified Health System-- Brasil's national health care system-- is only 23 years old, but nearly 80% of the country's population depends on it for health care coverage. Obviously, this puts a lot of strain on the health care sector, and it becomes very imporant to have a strong primary care foundation to hold up the health status of the nation.

Enter the Family Health Program, a major component of SUS. The Family Health Program concentrates of of its efforts on the low income areas of the country, including the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

The system works slightly differently depending on your residence. In the city of Rio de Janeiro, depending on your exact address, you can go to a particular office within the FHP-- and only that office. Each FHP covers many different districts within a region of the city, so to alleviate logistical issues, this approach is used (interestingly, if you live outside of the city of Rio de Janeiro, you can visit any FHP within your city). Of the FHP's I had the opportunitity to visit (one in Victor Valla, another in Padre Miguel--both in Zona Norte and one in Barra da Guaratiba), I was pretty impressed by the number of facilities that were offered. There was a dentist, a radiologist, a fully stocked pharmacy, etc. Even more, program were offered to the residents of the region, including lectures on health care issues such as dental care or leprosy, fitness classes, among others.

It seems that these clinics serve as a basis for good health promotion, but I could very easily see them being underused. A problem here--and most places around the world-- is that people wait till the last minute to seek health care, so facilities that focus on primary care are often underused. Unfortunate.