Description
The invitation to work as a psychologist in a project linked to a social responsibility program, of a mobile telephone company, ~as the starting point to raise a reflection about this new practice. Our non-involvement in the beginning of this project; the suggestion to keep a neutrality (non-participating observation) in our first meetings with the group; the lack of discussion with children, adolescents and parents about the work to be developed and the request to perform dynamics to form the identity of a group which did not even possess an adequate working place or, at least, a place where the group could hold their activities, were some of the issues that appeared during the process and which made us search for bibliographic references that give account of our concerns. Nevertheless, to our surprise, literature that contemplated the psychologist's praxis in these programs was scarce. This was, at first, restricted to the administrative and marketing area. This confirmation has urged us to research how psychologists are developing their works in social projects, becoming our principal objective: to investigate psychologists' insertion and action in social projects. To reach this goal it was necessary to map Non¬Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the city of Recife, which possessed social projects. Through this mapping, it was chosen six NGOs that have psychologists developing their professional practice in social projects. Considering the few literature about the theme and the understanding that the phenomena happen in the moment of interaction between the researcher and what is being researched, it was necessary a field research, for which we have used, as a tool, the semidirected interview. The interview script was designed based on thematic axis, having as a guiding axial the proposed objectives. The comprehension of the contents that emerged from the interviews led us to realize that most of the social projects develop a set of educational and preventive actions: from the elaboration to the coordination, supervision and assistance of the proper social projects, without forgetting to mention, the construction of the citizenship identity, promotion of culture, alternate income generation, health care, community leadership training, discussion about sex, gender and sexual diversity, institutional strategic acting, political sustainability, management or participation in political spaces, mediation of public policies, elaboration of educational and preventive campaigns, teaching, administration of executive and health sectors, promotion of lectures, representation of the institution, among others. The interdisciplinary work appeared as a background of all actions. Therefore, some challenges were almost unanimously mentioned, among them: lack of financing for maintenance and payment of salaries of a specialized team, lack of governmental support, need of a higher ethical positioning and commitment from the professionals. It was also observed that, despite a crescent for the psychology service, the practice accomplished in private clinical still prevails. Nevertheless, it important to highlight that it is emerging trends, in psychology, for the search of community models that, effectively, may consider the human being in a psychosocial and transdisciplinary perspective. In general, the professionals participating in this research believe that the psychologist's presence in these projects allows a better understanding of the human side and the relationships; facilitates a broad and horizontal view of reality; values the interdisciplinary work; allows the assistance of a demand that shows several scarcities and psychic sufferings occasioned by the social vulnerability and emphasizes the creation of bonds, besides feeding a constant reflection and re-construction of the psychological knowledge. In this sense, we can affirm that practice in the social requires a greater ethical and political involvement and commitment of the psychologist, independently of the specificity of the social project, the action accomplished or the methodology used. Thus, it is essential that the projects include in their targets the professional training; the construction of a partnership network; interdisciplinary work; the need of governmental support and financing involved with the whole organizational. It is intended that the results of this research may contribute to the formation of a critical and reflexive posture regarding the psychologist's action in social projects, in a way to offer subsides for an action directed to the population needs who demand the services. We also aim that, through this research based on the experiences translated by the participants, we are able to promote exchanges that allow a greater empowerment of the psychologists who act in the social
