Occupational Therapy and the integral health care of children and adolescents: the construction of the Project ACCALANTO

Abstract

This paper presents the Project ACCALANTO, which develops activities of teaching, research and assistance in the realm of occupational therapy and the child and adolescent care, via the perspective of integral and humanized care and the integral protection of childhood and youth. This project proposes to contribute to the development of knowledge and practices in occupational therapy, supported by the principles of an amplified clinic which recognizes e holds the singular needs of children and adolescents and their families/caregivers, caused by the process of getting ill and hospitalized and by the conditions of social vulnerability to which they are exposed. The paper presents the rationale and the theoretical/methodological framework and, the main care axis and strategies used in a child ward, namely: (i) the Ninar - comprehension and holding towards the needs of children from birth to 2 years old and their parents', seeking to develop initiatives of care promotion in an amplified dimension; (ii) the Aquarela - care for children and adolescents whose health conditions are marked by the intensity, gravity or chronicity, requiring especial intervention with high level of planning and control; (iii) the Amarelinha - provision of a significant co-existence and daily life in the hospital setting through the use of activities for the users altogether either in the toy library or in the common rooms of the ward; (iv) the AdoleSer - care provided for adolescents and young mothers in order to offer a place for reinvention of themselves and their life projects.