The objective of this paper was the investigation of the community health agents perception about violence against woman. This is a qualitative study of descriptive and exploratory kind. It was developed through semi-structured interviews for the collection of data. Twenty-six community health agents who work at the 25 health centers in a medium size town in Southern Brazil were interviewed in 2005. To analyse the data it was used the collective subject speech method. The analysis of the results showed that there is domestic violence against women, either physical, sexual, psychological or economic, caused by partners. It is necessary to give theoretical and practical subsidies for the professionals to help them and to detect violence situations, find ways to get closer to the families and to deal with violence as well as with the cases of alcohol and drugs. Violence against women needs consistent public politicies, so that it can be effectively considered a question of public health from an extended concept of health.
Domestic violence; Woman; Public health; Community health agent