title: [Street Outreach Offices: visibility, invisibility, and enhanced visibility].
abstract: This article discusses care for street people from a socio-anthropological perspective, using participant observation conducted with a team from a street outreach project. Based on observations, street people are historically viewed as marginal and rarely obtain access to health services, thus making them invisible to the Brazilian Unified National Health System. Brazil's National Policy for the Homeless provides for their access to health care, but such care is not always guaranteed in practice, because health services and professionals have little experience in dealing with homeless persons. The study concludes that enhanced visibility is needed to ensure care for people living on the street, establishing a therapeutic bond that deconstructs stigmatizing practice.
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, Brasil.
authors.forename: Janaína Alves da Silveira
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Hallais
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, Brasil.
authors.forename: Nelson Filice de
authors.initials: NF
authors.lastname: Barros
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D003153:Community Health Services; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D006293:Health Promotion; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006703:Ill-Housed Persons; D006801:Humans; D009313:National Health Programs; D012944:Social Support; D012962:Sociology, Medical