Serviços socioassistenciais: subjetividade e usuários do CRAS

Abstract

The Social Assistance Reference Center (CRAS) is a public facility providing basic social protection designed to serve vulnerable populations. Social assistance is a citizen’s right that presupposes the role of its users. The study question asks whether this role is realized in the subjective senses of its users. The general objective is to investigate the meanings of CRAS social assistance services for its users. Specifically, it aims to analyze how CRAS users identify themselves as participants in this public policy, describe how they access and remain in the services, identify how social assistance services affect their daily lives and analyze the meanings and significance of their relationships with the professionals working in the CRAS facilities. The two existing facilities in the municipality of Pontal do Paraná, PR, were used as references. This is a qualitative, exploratory study based on the theoretical and methodological framework of historical cultural theory (THC) and the field of science, technology, and society (STS). The procedures included bibliographic research using systematic reviews; the study of national regulations and documents; the collection of data from the Unified Registry for Federal Government Social Programs (Cadúnico) published on official websites; and the conduct of semi-structured interviews with nine adult CRAS users. The results were categorized into units of sense based on users’ statements: user identity, material assistance and socio-emotional support, sense of belonging, user/technician bond. Among the services offered by CRAS, such as PAIF (Comprehensive Family Protection and Care Service), SCFV (Coexistence and Strengthening of Ties Service) and PSB (Basic Social Protection) at home, research participants tend to highlight in their narratives relational and operational elements of the assistance received, whether in individualized services or in workshops and groups. The categories interrelate in identity. The terminology “user,” officially used in public policy, remains little known to the participants interviewed, who see themselves more as beneficiaries. Regarding the material assistance and socio-emotional support category, the sense of belonging and the experience of collective services and activities have enabled the creation of new areas of meaning about what it means to be a user, beyond access to material and specific benefits. These meanings permeate the affective relationships built at the CRAS (Brazilian Social Assistance Center), and the meanings about the services are related to belonging, the community, and the social and emotional support of the community support network that the CRAS offers through state policy. The role of the psychologist working at the CRAS transcends current regulations and requires an in-depth study of the processes of subjectivity formation. It is important to consider that subjectivity is constructed in these contexts based on access to services and benefits, social interactions, and bonds with workers, managers, and other users.