Compulsory Notification of Violence in Primary Health Care

This work was motivated by my experience as a resident social worker in the Integrated Multiprofessional Health Residency Programme (RIMS) at the Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA) in the field of Primary Health Care. This experience influenced the research proposed in this paper, which aims to bring to light the issue of violence against vulnerable groups, which is often invisibilised and/or hidden when not reported. In the case of children, adolescents, women and the elderly, legislation makes it compulsory to fill in the compulsory notification form for violence: The notification of violence has been made compulsory by various legal acts and regulations such as the Statute of the Child and Adolescent (ECA), established by Law no. 8. 069/1990; Law No. 10.778/2003, which establishes compulsory notification of violence against women; and Law No. 10.741/2003, which establishes the Statute for the Elderly (BRASIL, 2011).In the health sector, violence cannot be omitted or naturalised; on the contrary, care and protection must go hand in hand in this sector too.