Abstract
The study aimed to know the structure of the social representations of health and illness of the municipal councilors of the Integrated Development Region of the Federal District and Surroundings, as well as to analyze the relationship between these social representations and the role of health advisers in the system. The Theory of Social Representations and the Central Nucleus were adopted as theoretical reference. Seventy one questionnaires were applied to the counselors to verify their profile, in addition to using the technique of free and hierarchical association of words with the terms "health" and "disease", with analysis by EVOC software. Regarding the profile of the directors, 16.9% are representatives of managers, 40.8% of employees and 42.3% of users. The results reveal that the social representation of health is associated to the ideas of care, quality of life and life associated with longevity. The social representation of disease is linked to pathology, objectified in cancer and the idea of pain, sadness, suffering as a result of illness. It is necessary to advance the understanding of the health-disease process, considering it as a historically constructed psychosocial phenomenon, which, due to its comprehensiveness and dynamicity, also requires an analysis from the cultural perspective.
Keywords:
health; disease; social representation; health advice