Contribuição ao estudo do trabalho do/a assistente social com famílias no Brasil

Abstract

Brazilian Social Work, since its foundation, has had family work as an important dimension of its professional praticals, whether this praticals carried out in workplaces where social policies are implemented, expressed mainly in direct practice, or, from intellectual maturity of Brazilian Social Work, materialized in monitoring, evaluation and discussion of these social policies, which, at present, are based on family centrality, a process marked by some inconsistencies. However, the profound ethical, theoretical and political transformation that took place within the profession especially during the 1980s, while allowing Brazilian Social Work to experience extraordinary advances, had the undesirable consequence of catalyzing difficulties in apprehending "families" as object of study, since, a priori, this was classified as essentially traditionalist and subjectivist, leaving it to be studied by other professional categories. As a result of this movement, social worker has now encountered difficulties in carrying out their professional activities with families, often drawing on common sense or diffuses theoretical subsidies, different from the theoretical production of Brazilian Social Work, which also makes possible the distortion of professional identity. We understand that an important motivation for such a scenario is the fact that social work with families is not sufficiently addressed in discussion spaces of profession, and it is necessary to carry out a rescue movement of this subject from the theoretical subsidies incorporated into Social Work in decades. In this direction, this research monograph aims to contribute to the consolidation of a qualified professional action by social worker with families in Brazil, that is, aligned with our ethical-political project and competent in the sense of guaranteeing social rights to population. The specific objectives were to understand the conception of families which is closer to our ethical-political project, to analyze how the profession was historically founded and consolidated in Brazil, as well as the way in which social workers in past have carried out actions with families, and finally, to investigate how our professional category faces work with families today. For this end, we use bibliographical research and document analysis of professional legislation which guide Social Work in its interventions. It was understood that although our legislation provides us with fundamental subsidies for working with families, given the pertinence of theme, it is necessary to combine this with an emphasis on studies on work with families, through the promotion of disciplines, research projects, university extension courses and debates within the professional category.