April 18, 2022

09:04

Priscilla Peixoto – Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – Aiming to identify the singularities regarding access and care for lesbian and bisexual women in health services in the cities of Manaus, Parintins, Itacoatiara and Manacapuru, the Amazonas State Research Support Foundation (Fapeam) is developing a study entitled “Between Right and Access: health protoforms in primary care for lesbian and bisexual women in four cities of Amazonas”.

The research is supported by the Amazonas Government and the Amazonas Universal Research Support Program. According to the study coordinator, professor of the Social Work course at the Federal University of Amazonas (Ufam), PhD Lidiany de Lima Cavalcante, when the focus is the health of LGBTQIA+ women, prejudice and discrimination are also present, causing this part of the population to stay away from health units.

“They abandon health services due to the prejudice and discrimination they suffer, resulting in a lack of prevention and leading to cancer, which could be avoided with health humanization policies, welcoming practices, and recognition of differences,” says Lidiany.

Objective and methodology

The study intends to better understand the specificities regarding this public and, simultaneously, prepare and qualify health professionals for a more effective service. The plan is to improve this relationship of care and health service, through the use of awareness and guidance materials, with the professionals from the primary health care network in the four municipalities surveyed, an expanded meeting.

According to the coordinator, the initial goal was to reach at least 70 women and 150 professionals, however, the research-action has already reached more than 140 professionals and is close to reaching 90 women. Each health professional is interviewed, and the participating women answer a questionnaire. At the end of the initiative, the goal is to have specific training on gender, sexual diversity, and the specificities of lesbian and bisexual women in primary health care, with an emphasis on access to health, sexual and reproductive rights preventive examinations. 

“Our goal is to listen to both representatives, ponder the results, and give back to society, with a training proposal for the professionals. We know that the theme of sexual diversity is taboo, even in the 21st century, but we need to deconstruct these paradigms in order to promote inclusion in primary health care,” says the researcher. 

“Support for effective research in our region”

Lidiany Cavalcante points out the importance of researchers from the Amazon Region and the support directed to the research and actions carried out. The coordinator highlights the fundamental relevance in the fomentation of this research, which is characterized by being unprecedented, in the Brazilian scope, as research-action of Human and Social Sciences scope. 

“I would like to reiterate the importance of the Amazonas State Research Support Foundation’s recognition of our researchers and the approval of the funding of research projects, especially those that are challenging. Fapeam’s work is of excellence, in this scope, and fundamental for the effective construction of research in our region”, considers Lidiany.

*With information from the press office