O lugar e o fazer do apoiador institucional no Sistema Único de Saúde

This essay examines the role of the institutional supporter in the Unified Health System, focusing on the characterization of their “doing” and the differentiation between the “educational” and “pedagogical” dimensions of their work at the School of Public Health of the State Health Department of Paraíba. This is a theoretical-practical-reflexive text, based on the practice in the territory and dialogue with different authors who approach the theme of Institutional Support and Popular Education. The institutional supporter's pedagogical and educational action is characterized by the mediation of processes, the promotion of dialogue and social participation, the construction of collective knowledge, and the search for solutions to the problems of the Unified Health System. Popular Education presents itself as an important theoretical-methodological framework for the development of a transformative and emancipatory “pedagogical action”. Finally, it is concluded that the institutional supporter does not occupy and should not restrict himself to occupying a “non-place” or a “between-place”, but rather that the “pedagogical and educational action” of the supporter should constitute his place in the structure of the Unified Health System and, if it does not yet exist, it must be built/instituted.