ATENÇÃO À SAÚDE DO IDOSO NA PRÁTICA DIÁRIA DA EQUIPE DO PROGRAMA DE SAÚDE DA FAMÍLIA. SÃO LUÍS, 2006

Abstract

An interesting phenomenon that is observed nowadays is that the population is getting old. This is showed in many countries, in Europe, North America and a part of Asia, but in those countries, this phenomenon is happening in a slowly way and is followed by an economical growth that helps the development of plans more systematic and efficient. In some countries that are developing, just like Brazil, this phenomenon has been happening in a quickly way, and there is a prospect that in 2025, Brazil is the sixth country in the world related by old population and in instead of those countries mentioned before, without any economical or organizational conditions that support their consequences. So, it's necessary to find a way of strategies to promote to this group age a healthy attention that preserves their functional capacity guarantying to old population independence and autonomy for as much time as possible. On this way, it's really important that everybody participate in a research to find an attention more resolved and efficient, above all the professionals that develop their plans in a basic attention, giving the possibility to take care of the elderly in their real context (familiar, social and political) avoiding to send many people to the other levels of· attention and increasing the chances to provide to elderly people a healthy aging. It argues about the attention to health elderly by the strategy of the health family, related by statement of the people that take care of this service. It is a study with exploration, descriptive and with quantities approach. The target was concluded with many different professionals that are distributed in the 89 teams of health family of São Luís, including a sample calculation that defined like representative sample to doctors, nurses and nurse auxiliaries, 30 people of each professional category - added 10% to any kind of loses. The sample concluded 33 people of each category. In spite of the "ACS" involve more professionals; opt to considerate 33 people of this category to be included on the study. So, the sample of the research made 132 people. It was identified four variables that represented statistics importance, with variations on the many professional categories studied, showed here: Kinds of planned actions, Knowledge of the National politic of heath for elderly, kinds of schedule and discretion of definition to home visit and it was concluded that even if the knowledge of the National politic of health to elderly being a priority in the health ministry schedule, is still observed the distance of its theories and the routine of the professionals of the health family from São Luís, being at least unknown by many of them with predominance in nurses auxiliaries and "ACS". The pathologies degenerative-chronicles, hypertension and diabetes are pointed like the main target of the planned actions and executed by the teams, which with the national politics of health elderly, is insufficient, maybe because the difficulties are related by the lack capacity of health professionals in the health family ion the geriatric area. The factors that interfere in the daily practice of the workers of the Health family team from São Luís, it was observed that the factors that help their work, "the actions and the services" that were developed by the team or even by the "ACS" themselves. But, the only professional category that had a different opinion was the "ACS" that attributed "the receptive of the elderly and their families" like the main facility to the development of their actions with this population. Discussing with the difficulties founded, almost everybody, excepting the doctors, that the lack of materials and equipments are the main difficulty, interfering directly in the actions that are planned and executed by the teams from São Luís. The doctors say that the main problem is related by the actions that are not being executed properly and in a unsatisfactory way. So, It is responsibility of the state and the city of São Luís, develop actions with the health family teams, for example, with enabling, just searching partnership with high school and college institutions to discuss concepts about elderly, aging, national politics of health to elderly and its interface with the principle and concepts of the program of the health family, in a way to notice and teach these professionals to the development of actions not only to elderly that are registered in the program of hypertension or diabetes, but to everyone that needs attention. It is responsibility of the city to offer conditions to the professionals of the health family program could develop their activities without any kind of interruption because of some lack of people working, materials and logistics. It is good to express that the home visit made with plans, in a systematical way and with discretion will be an important tool to identify in loco the necessities and situations that the elderly will be exposed by the program.