Bahiana holds the 2nd Symposium of the Health Mentors Program

"This is a revolutionary program that changes the teaching-learning paradigm, in which teachers do not occupy the role of professors, but rather of intermediaries in building the relationship between students and users of health services", with these words, Milena Lisboa, professor of the Psychology course and one of the coordinators of the Health Mentors Program opened the program of the II Symposium of the Health Mentors Program, which took place on September 11, at Campus Brotas. The program coordinators, Selena Dubois and Aidê Nunes, the health mentors, and students from the Nursing, Physiotherapy, Medicine and Psychology courses who participated in the initiative throughout the year were present.

The program is a unique educational experience, in which teams of students from different undergraduate courses in the Bahiana learn together, having as health mentors people who live with a chronic condition, in this case, members of the HTLVida Association, users of the HTLV Center of Bahiana. The difference in this edition was that the students were taken to the mentors' home territory for the listening process, which allowed for a deeper understanding of the reality experienced by people living with HTLV. "I didn't feel like I was dealing with students, but with trained professionals. I noticed this both in the competence and in the respect and ethics with which I was treated," said mentor Francisco Daltro Borges.

During the event, the experiences of 8 groups were presented, with the participation of around 30 students. The program follows the model implemented and carried out by the University of British Columbia Vancouver (UBC), in Canada, and which is being reproduced in Bahiana, through the Center for International Academic Relations and Internationalization (REAI). The team also includes professors Bernardo Galvão, coordinator of the HTLV Center at Bahiana, and Maria Antonieta Araújo, manager of REAI.