Cuidado à saúde do idoso na atenção primária: uma proposta de mudança para assistência integral

Abstract

Brazil presents a change in the population profile, where there is a remarkable picture of longevity, resulting in an increase in the elderly population. This aging process, in addition to impacting the demographic and epidemiological profile throughout the country, results in new challenges to be faced in the care of the elderly population, mainly directed at public policies. The Primary Health Care-PHC is the level of assistance that comes closest to the elderly, their reality of life, daily life and family. In addition, the link between the Family Health Team and this population, associated with the adoption of multidisciplinary interventions, can establish conditions for a more effective monitoring of their health, in addition to helping in the therapeutic and preventive process. From the point of view of modern Geriatrics, the health of the elderly can be considered as the maximum functional capacity for the longest time achievable. In this sense, one of the main objectives of the policies is the reorientation of services to identify the level of dependency of these elderly people, giving them a differentiated follow-up in each situation, in order to promote their quality of life. However, in the daily practice of PHC, there is a perpetuation of reductionist care, centered on the disease and its exacerbation, reinforcing the biomedical model, imposed by the medicalization of symptoms that sometimes emerge from a multidimensional individual and family context, which are not taken into account. It becomes emergent to evolve in this aspect. Therefore, this study is part of a larger research that intends to elaborate a proposal for change in the integral care of the elderly in PHC, based on the Primary Care policies for the elderly in the world and in Brazil, with the intention of qualifying the health care of the elderly. The first phase of this study consisted of building the model used in the PHC of Belo Horizonte for elderly care and its validation by experts through a questionnaire. Afterwards, the model was adapted with the contributions of experts. In the second phase, based on the summary table with the PHC guidelines for the elderly presented in the documents of the WHO, the Ministry of Health, the State Health Department and the PBH, a proposal for care in PHC in the PBH was established, based on in the guidelines of the documents, whose validation will also be given by managers and professionals of the PBH and which will result in a technical product: Workshop to discuss the feasibility of the intervention.