Every family that enrolls a child in the Pathfinder Club signs two forms. The first is the registration form. The second is the medical form — and it's the one almost nobody reads carefully, even though it's the only one that answers a very concrete question: if something happens to that Pathfinder three hours from home, what does the adult next to them need to know right now?
The good news is that this form isn't a club invention. It's Form B of the Pathfinder Club Administrative Manual, published by the South American Division, and today it's also generated by the SGC, the official secretary's-office system. It has a format, it has defined fields, and it has an expiration date.
The part that changed — and that most clubs still haven't absorbed — is the legal one. Health data is sensitive personal data under the LGPD (General Data Protection Law). An 11-year-old's health data is sensitive data and a minor's data, with its own rule. That changes who can open the folder, what the club can ask, and where that form must never circulate. Let's take it step by step.
What Is the Pathfinder's Medical Form — and What's the Official Form?
The medical form (or health form, as the manual calls it) is Form B of the Pathfinder Club Administrative Manual, from the South American Division. It appears in the manual right after Form A, which is the registration form. They're sibling documents: one says who the Pathfinder is, the other says what their body needs.
The manual is direct about its purpose. In item 3.4.2, when covering registration, the text states that, in addition to personal and school data, a health form must be added for each Pathfinder to check whether they have a chronic illness, an allergy, or need any medication. It's not paperwork for the archive: it's triage.
Today there are two versions in circulation, and both are legitimate. The first is the printed Form B, found in the manual itself — brief, fits on one page. The second is the template generated by the SGC, the SAD's Club Management System, which comes with the footer "Generated by the Club Management System — South American Division of the SDA Church" and is far more detailed. The copy we consulted was downloaded from a third-party file repository and has 2019 metadata, so the layout inside the system may have changed since — check what your SGC generates today. If your club uses the SGC (and it should), the system's version is the one that counts, because it's the one the Conference sees.
What varies: some Conferences and Missions issue their own template, with extra fields required by the local Field or the campsite. This is allowed, as long as the official form's fields are covered. The decision belongs to your Conference/Mission's Pathfinder Department — check with your Field before printing 60 copies of a template downloaded from the internet.
What Fields Does the Medical Form Need to Have?
This is the table almost nobody publishes. Below, the comparison between Form B from the manual and the template generated by the SGC, field by field, based on the two documents consulted on July 12, 2026.
| Block | Form B (Administrative Manual) | Template generated by the SGC |
|---|---|---|
| Identification | Pathfinder's name | Name and date filled out |
| Care | Not included | Health plan and SUS card number |
| Blood type | Blood type and Rh factor | Typing (A, B, O, AB) and Rh factor (positive/negative) |
| Vaccination and history | Vaccinations up to date: tetanus and yellow fever | No vaccination field. Includes "which illnesses they've already had": chickenpox, meningitis, hepatitis, dengue, pneumonia, malaria, yellow fever, H1N1, cholera, rubella, measles, tetanus, smallpox, whooping cough, diphtheria, mumps, rhinitis, bronchitis |
| Illnesses and conditions | Diabetes, epilepsy, heart conditions, hemophilia, asthma (bronchitis), and an open field | Heart condition, diabetes, fainting or seizures, psychological care, disability, lactose intolerance |
| Allergies | Penicillin, insect bites, and four open fields | Medication allergy, skin allergy, and general allergy — each with a "which medications they take" field |
| Recent history | Not included | Surgeries, recent fracture, recent serious injury, blood transfusion, and reason for hospitalization in the last 5 years |
| Emergency contacts | Two people, with name, relationship, and phone number | Comes from the member's registration (Form A), not the health form |
| Signature | Parent's or guardian's signature | Signature and guardian's CPF |
Notice the detail that trips up a lot of people: the SGC template has no emergency-contact field. Those phone numbers live in the member's registration. If the club prints only the health form to bring on an outing, it leaves home without the parents' phone numbers. Print both documents, or put together a cover sheet per unit with name, allergy, medication, and two phone numbers.
The educational why: the fields aren't there for red tape. Blood type and Rh factor guide first aid in an accident. A medication allergy keeps someone from offering the wrong painkiller. A seizure or a heart condition completely changes how the first responder handles things. The SUS card and health plan determine where the Pathfinder gets taken. Filling in "no" for everything, without talking to the family, turns the form into a pretty, useless piece of paper.
How Long Is the Medical Form Valid — and What's the Yearly Routine?
The SAD's official guidance for directors is clear: the medical form is valid for 12 months. Past that, it's expired — even if nothing about the Pathfinder's health has changed.
This point tends to catch clubs off guard, because the update doesn't depend on there being anything new. If the family confirms everything is still the same, the form still needs to be reconfirmed and re-entered in the SGC, so the update date resets back within the 12-month window. The natural moment for this is when the club's activities restart, alongside the year's enrollment.
There's also a practical effect on the club's score. In the SAD's club star rating (rules updated on January 1, 2024), the "medical form" criterion is worth 0 to 75 points out of a total of 1,000, and only scores in full with 100% of active members up to date. For reference, 5 stars requires more than 800 points. Seventy-five points is the gap between tiers for a lot of clubs.
The routine that works in organized clubs fits into four moves a year, and almost all of it lives in the club secretary's office.
| When | What to do | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Start of the year | Collect a new or reconfirmed medical form, signed by the guardian, along with enrollment | Secretary's office |
| Within 30 days | Enter or reconfirm everything in the SGC, to reset the 12-month clock | Secretary |
| Before each outing | Print the per-unit cover sheet: name, allergy, medication, and two phone numbers | Board |
| Before camporee | Check the form in the event's registration system and the Field manual's deadlines | Board |
On tools, plainly stated: the SGC is the official, irreplaceable system. It's where the member's record exists for the Church, it's where the annual insurance is triggered, and it's what the Conference/Mission sees. No third-party app — including Desbravai — replaces that, and be wary of anyone who says otherwise. What support tools like Desbravai handle is the day-to-day layer: tracking deadlines, organizing communication with parents, putting together the outing list. Registration and insurance always stay in the SGC.
The educational why: a 10-year-old changes a lot in a year. Asthma shows up, an allergy gets discovered, an ongoing medication starts, another stops. A 2023 form inside a 2026 folder isn't just a paperwork gap — it's wrong information in the hands of whoever is going to help.
Read alsoClub enrollment formWho Can See the Medical Form at the Club?
Let's be honest: the Administrative Manual doesn't publish a list of who can and can't open the medical form. What it establishes is custody. And from that custody rule plus the LGPD, you can answer this with confidence.
What the rule says about custody: the manual requires that each member have an individual folder at the club's secretary's office, holding the health forms and prescriptions. It also requires that the club secretary is responsible for registration and for updating all data. And it adds a point many people overlook: even if the registration is digital, a physical copy must exist at the secretary's office. The SGC doesn't do away with paper.
What the LGPD adds is the necessity principle (art. 6, III): only the data indispensable for the purpose is processed. Translated for the club: nobody needs to see the whole form just because they're a leader. They need to see it if they're the one who will act.
| Who | Reasonable access | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Club director | Full form | Answers for the minors during official activities |
| Secretary | Full form | Responsible for registration and updates (manual, item 3.4.2) |
| Unit counselor | Only the essentials: allergy, ongoing medication, and contacts | Closest by in the first few minutes |
| Medical team or first responder | Full form, at the time of the emergency | Protection of life and physical safety (LGPD, art. 11, II, "e") |
| Camporee leadership / Conference | Through the registration system's data | The base the event's health team consults |
| Other Pathfinders and other parents | None | A minor's sensitive data is nobody else's business |
What varies and who decides: the exact breakdown of access is a decision for the club board, within what the Conference/Mission guides. A 25-member club runs on one folder and two people; a 120-member club needs a written rule. What doesn't vary is the legal floor: whoever doesn't need the data to care for the Pathfinder has no reason to see it.
A practical consequence worth writing on the wall: the medical form does not go into a WhatsApp group, a shared spreadsheet with a public link, or the personal phone of someone who left the board last year. This connects directly to the child protection rules the club already follows.
What Does the LGPD Require of a Club That Holds a Minor's Health Data?
Here's the framework almost no club material explains. Law 13.709/2018 (LGPD) classifies health-related data as sensitive personal data (art. 5, II). And art. 14 creates its own regime for children's and teenagers' data, which must be handled in their best interest. The Pathfinder's medical form falls into both categories at once.
One nuance almost no material covers, and it matters in a club with 10-to-15-year-olds: the law separates child from teenager. Under the ECA, a child is anyone up to 12 years old (not yet turned 12); a teenager, 12 to 18. And the parental-consent rule in art. 14, § 1 is written for children — the text doesn't repeat the requirement for teenagers, and §§ 2, 4, and 5 all refer back to § 1. In practice this doesn't let the club off the hook for anything: the teenager is still a minor, their parents are still the ones responsible for them, the best-interest standard in art. 14's main clause applies to both, and the health data stays sensitive. But it does mean that a guardian's signature on the form of a 14-year-old Pathfinder rests on the combination — art. 11, I, plus legal representation, plus best interest — rather than on a literal requirement of § 1.
| Club situation | Legal basis | What that means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Collecting and keeping the form | Art. 11, I + art. 14, § 1 | Specific, highlighted consent from the legal guardian. For a Pathfinder under 12, § 1 requires this literally; from 12 to 15, art. 11, I applies, combined with legal representation and the best-interest standard of art. 14's main clause. In both cases, the guardian's signature carries legal weight |
| Using the form in an emergency | Art. 11, II, item "e" | Protection of the data subject's life or physical safety. The club doesn't need to seek new authorization to act or to show the form to whoever is providing aid |
| Asking for data with no concrete use | Forbidden — art. 14, § 4, and art. 6, III | The law bars making a child's participation conditional on providing personal information beyond what's strictly necessary for the activity; the necessity principle extends the same logic to the whole club |
| Explaining to the family what's collected | Art. 14, §§ 2 and 6 | The club must state what data it collects, how it's used, and do so simply, clearly, and accessibly |
| Passing the form to a third party unrelated to care | No legal basis | No scenario supports sending a minor's sensitive data to someone with no role in providing care |
One technical detail worth knowing, because it tends to get misquoted: item "f" of art. 11, II — "health protection" — doesn't serve as a basis for the club. The law's text restricts that scenario to a procedure carried out exclusively by health professionals, health services, or a health authority. A Pathfinder Club isn't a health service. The club's basis is the guardian's consent (art. 11, I) and, in an emergency, protection of life (item "e").
It's also worth noting that consent isn't the only legal basis available for children's and teenagers' data. The ANPD, Brazil's national data-protection authority, published Statement CD/ANPD No. 1/2023 in 2023, establishing that processing can rest on the other scenarios in arts. 7 and 11 of the LGPD, as long as the child's or teenager's best interest is observed and prevails. In club practice, this reinforces — rather than loosens — the level of care required.
This arrangement doesn't conflict with the ECA. Art. 4 of Law 8.069/1990 places on the family, the community, society at large, and public authorities the duty to ensure, with absolute priority, that children's and teenagers' rights to life and health are fulfilled. The club is part of that community. Keeping the medical form properly isn't ticking a box — it's carrying out that duty.
Who Carries the Medical Form on Outings and at Camporee?
Golden rule: the folder lives at the secretary's office, but the information travels with the club. Leaving the only copy locked in the church cabinet while the club camps 200 km away is the most common — and most costly — mistake.
For outings, camping trips, and excursions, the standard that works is for the board to bring one set per unit — health form and contacts — under the responsibility of a named person, usually the assistant director or the secretary. The manual backs this logic by requiring that leaders know in advance who has a chronic illness, an allergy, or takes medication; and the common guidance among leaders is to always keep the form on hand during outings — but it's worth flagging: that line isn't written in the Administrative Manual, it's established practice, not published rule. Alongside it go the signed outing authorization and the minor's ID document.
At a Division camporee, things change, and here there is a written rule. The Guidance Manual for the V South American Camporee — the one in Barretos, in January 2019, the SAD-level manual we were able to read in full — establishes that there will be a Central Hospital and medical posts on site, and that each case will be assessed by the medical team based on the medical form filled out in the registration system, which is the database for every registrant. In other words: at the SAD's camporee, the digital form is what counts, and a club that left its records outdated hands the health team a Pathfinder with no history.
The same document brings up two other points that depend on the club: every club must keep its own first-aid kit (worth checking our first-aid kit guide), and the health professional the club brings works shifts at their Union's medical post, using medications from the club's own kit.
What varies: each Conference/Mission publishes its own camporee's guidance manual, with its own documentation requirements and submission deadlines. Field- and Union-level camporees usually ask for documentation before the event. Confirm with your Field — don't assume the SAD's 2019 rule is the same as your 2026 camporee's.
Ongoing Medication: What Can and Can't the Club Do?
This is the most delicate point of the medical form, and the manual is specific. If the Pathfinder needs to take medication during the club's meeting hours, that information must appear on the health form, and a copy of the prescription must be attached to it. It's not optional, and it's not settled with a note in the group chat.
Translated into everyday terms: without an attached prescription, the club has no way to show it's following medical guidance. With one attached, there's a document that protects the leader, the family, and the Pathfinder. The guidance found across Brazilian leadership materials points the same way — medication is given per medical prescription and at the parents' request, never on the initiative of a leader who figured it was just a little headache.
- Can: store the medication labeled with the Pathfinder's name, dose, and time, and oversee its use per the prescription and the parents' written request.
- Can: record the medication allergy on the form in clearly visible lettering — it's the piece of information that prevents the most errors in first aid.
- Cannot: offer a painkiller, an antihistamine, or any "freebie" medicine from the first-aid kit to a minor without a prescription and without the parents' authorization.
- Cannot: leave it up to an 11-year-old Pathfinder to remember an ongoing medication alone, with no adult keeping track.
On insurance, so as not to set the wrong expectation: the club's annual insurance covers accidents, not illness. The manual lists pre-existing conditions among the exclusions and requires the director to report the claim within 20 calendar days of the accident date, with payment by reimbursement. The medical form isn't the claim document — the insurance's document lists point to the member's registration form instead. In other words: the medical form protects the care; the insurance covers the accident's bill. They're different things, and the family deserves to hear that clearly.