Ecologia do Cuidado: Instituições de Longa Permanência para Idosos como Nicho de Desenvolvimento

Abstract

The accelerated process of population aging raises concern about the future, mainly considering the small number of professionals in the fields of gerontology and geriatrics and the fragile qualifications which exist in the training schools of caregivers. The objective of this study was to investigate the Ecology of Care in Long-Term Care Institutions for the Elderly (LTCIE) in the city of Belém/PA, using the concept of Developmental Niche applied to aging. The thesis is organized in five studies, whose context are the two public LTCIE from the city of Belém. The specific objectives were: study 1- to trace the social demographic profile and to reveal the perception about the elderly, aging and care; study 2- to describe the perception about physical and social environment; study 3- to describe beliefs and knowledge about old age, identifying relationships with socio demographic variables; 4- to compare care practices between the two institutions and 5- to analyze the Developmental Niche of the institutionalized elderly. About 32 caregivers participated, being 13 from Public Institution 1 (PI1) and 19 from PI2. The multimethod approach was used because of the complexity of the object of study. Thus, the following methods were used: descriptive, observational and correlational, being a cross-sectional study that used quantitative and qualitative analyzes. The main results indicate: 1- the profile of caregivers indicates the predominance of women, young people with medium to high education, and most do not have courses in the area of human aging and care; 2- the physical environment was perceived with some limitations that make it difficult to perform certain activities; the social environment was evaluated as positive, especially in the interactions between care-caregiver and caregiver-elderly; 3- the beliefs about old age indicated a heterogeneous understanding about aging, neither positive nor negative, understanding the process as individual; 4- more positive than negative care practices were identified. It is concluded that the development niche subsystems of the institutionalized elderly are in constant interaction and it can influence in the quality of development in old age by focusing on the care of the elderly. Understanding the Ecology of Care in LTCIE and recognizing the caregiver while being active in the development process of the elderly can contribute to the development of integrated care plans that meet current and future demands.