This paper presents institutional support as a device for implementing reception in healthcare services. The supporter function provides support for change processes in organizations and links concepts and technologies that come from institutional analysis and management. Institutional support has been used as a methodological device within the Brazilian Humanization Policy to construct and consolidate the Brazilian Health System (SUS). The stages of the support process within a healthcare service were described and analyzed here. Institutional support placed the management methods of that public service under analysis, gave rise to work in comanagement spaces and produced changes in how the entry to that service was organized, towards greater access and problem-solving capacity for service users. It can thus be considered that support is a strategic device for creating new strategies within SUS, through enabling expansion of institutional democracy.
Institutional support; Reception; Brazilian Humanization Policy; Polyclinic; Brazilian Health System (SUS)