Constituição do discurso da autonomia no cotidiano de uma Instituição de Longa Permanência para Idosos

• Ano de defesa: 2019
• Autor(a) principal: Isadora Queiroz Correa Garchet Furtado
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; Brasil; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Enfermagem; UFMG
• Palavras-chave em Português: Idoso; Instituição de Longa Permanência para Idosos; Autonomia pessoal; Institucionalização; Independência
• Link de acesso: http://hdl.handle.net/1843/30241

Population aging is a worldwide process which is a result of the rise in life expectancy associated with better health conditions. Even though public health policies favor that elderly people are taken care of at home and stay there, it is important to emphasize that, as societies evolve, the care which used to be the responsibility of the nuclear family, particularly women, has taken on a different profile. In the face of the changes in the social demographic conformation of population, with the reconfiguration of the family structure and larger presence of women in the labor market, the demand for places in Long-Term Care Facility (LTCF) has increased. Within this context of institutionalization it is important to assure the maintenance of the elderly person‟s autonomy, as the physiological, biological and social limits which are inherent to the natural process of aging tend to reduce their access to decision making. The aim of this study was to analyze the constitution of discourses related to the elderly person‟s autonomy in the everyday life in a LTCF. This research was developed according to the perspective of post-structuralist framework, taking place in Belo Horizonte, capital of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Data were collected through semi-structured script interview with 7 elderly women living in the institution and 14 professionals who were involved in taking care of these elderly, in addition to documental analysis and observation. The data were submitted to Discourse Analysis, being understood that this is a space of articulation between knowledge and power. The discourses were analyzed under two main categories: effects of institutionalization on the elderly person‟s autonomy and the development of disabilities as a barrier in the constitution of autonomy of the elderly person. Institutionalization results in isolation of the elderly in relation to the outside world, segregating them from their family and social life. Relative to this, it isolates one elderly woman from the other, making independent elderly women become recluse in their bedrooms and dependent elderly women stay in common areas. Accordingly, the institution puts into practice the control of bodies, space and time. The control is also effective with the use of devices which impose relations of power, such as norms and routines, consolidated in the practices of daily care. Moreover, the elderly women‟s discourse of wellbeing is used by the professionals to justify the control of their daily activities, compromising their autonomy and imposing a routine that restricts their choices in favor of organization and disciplinarization of the environment. The development of disabilities at advanced causes elderly women to be classified according to their degrees of physical and cognitive functionality. Such categorization determines their capacity to express themselves and make decisions once they are introduced to a controlled and regulated environment. This context translates the normalizing mode of a social wellbeing ideology and a policy that reinforces disability, circulating through an extensive network of services and public policies. Therefore, autonomy is limited to some elderly women, who in order to exert it, must have preserved cognitive capacity, while elderly women who need help in everyday life are subject to the power of another person.