The results of a qualitative study, carried out between 2007 and 2009 in three cities of Greater Florianópolis into the reality of the family health teams are presented. The scope was to investigate if the analysis of social and health reality was conducted and to what extent it contributed to the inclusion of local actions aiming at health promotion (HP) and permanent education (PE). The results showed that HP and PE, respectively, were being confused with disease prevention and ongoing education and were seldom present in the work of the professionals. Also, they revealed an educational and preventive "spirit," with a didactic approach based on unidirectional transmission of content. Social and health reality were not analyzed in depth and in most cases did not create effective actions to promote health, nor were there processes of permanent education. The practices of recording data by the Health Community Agents were merely compliance with a bureaucratic necessity, although healthcare and prevention require actions of an educational nature. The conclusion reached is that permanent education does not exist in these teams and its introduction can contribute to broaden understanding of health promotion practices.
Health promotion; Permanent education; Health policies; Primary care
