Patients who heal

In Patients Who Heal , doctor Julia Rocha talks about her daily life in the Brazilian Unified Health System, the SUS, where she has worked for ten years, since graduating.

The texts in Patients Who Heal present what Julia—a Black woman, family and community physician, mother, and singer—experienced on hospital shifts, in her office at the Basic Health Unit, at the Emergency Room, or visiting patients at home. And, in doing so, they paint a portrait of a peripheral Brazil, one that has always lived in poverty. At the same time, they reveal what is universal and sensitive in humanity. In the book, we see how health is much more than not being sick: it is having guaranteed rights to work, housing, food, education, leisure, and the other components of the welfare state. But how can we provide rights to people in situations of social vulnerability? How can we enforce the articles of the Constitution that establish universal and equal access to healthcare?

Health care is a right for all and a duty of the state. The Unified Health System (SUS), created in 1986, is the result of struggles by social movements and encompasses assistance policies and programs to promote health, democracy, and citizenship for all Brazilians, free of charge. It is considered one of the largest and best public health systems in the world.

Thanks to the Unified Health System (SUS) and its network of professionals dedicated to providing humane patient care, we have the opportunity to meet Dr. Julia and the patient-characters in this book. Stories like those of Juliana and Juraci, who suffered from one of the worst diseases society could transmit: racism and slavery; of Ruth, who sought a sleeping pill and was diagnosed with oppression by sexism; and also of the woman who sought a solution to reduce her sexual desire and discovered she was healthy; and of Mr. André, who nearly died and found love.

Patients Who Heal is a book to be moved by, to laugh at. It's fun and fuels the struggle. A book for people who feel deeply about injustice and who insist on changing the world.