Improving healthcare quality to elderly by organizing of attention networks

Abstract

In Brazil, the neoplasies took the second place in the period of 1996 to 2001. In relation to morbidity indicators, they express the emergence of chronic and degenerative diseases, caused by the fast aging of the population, an acute phenomenon explained more strongly by the reducing rates of infant mortality and the reduction in birth rates, presenting a situation for which the health systems are not prepared. In Brazil, it is confirmed a global tendency: the longer survival of women than men, and the depression as a major cause of morbidity. Brazilian society is going through intensive process of transformation, where young adults are increasingly fewer, imposing the question: who will take care of our elderly in the XXI century? The structuring of networks of attention to the elderly person is urgent, covering primary care, including the care with housing: Healthy Housing, and ensuring access to secondary and tertiary levels of care, providing early diagnosis and fast access to treatment. This article reports a case study experience: the restructuring of a shelter for elderly indigents, with 500 elderly in Rio de Janeiro, where it was held a broad process of humanization, with strong physical restructuring of the buildings from 1930.