Envelhecimento e novas relações de cuidado: Um estudo antropológico sobre cuidadores de idosos

Abstract

The demographic transition in development in Brazil has promoted several questions, among which highlight the debate on the responsibility for the care for the elderly contingent. In this thesis, I present the results of my research on the changing relations generated by the increase in population longevity, examining the care of relationships that develop around the subject elderly in the home context. The study was conducted in two contexts, Brazil and Portugal. In Brazil also signed up for a course of nursing caregiver. The techniques of participant observation and interviews were used in order to develop an ethnography allowing know the investigated socio-cultural contexts and collect data on the daily lives of caregivers. The importance of understanding the care relationships and processes that transform subjectivities and bodies, making this professional a "subject in relation", emerged in the reports of the research partners with great intensity. Whether in Portugal or Brazil, almost all caregivers, family members or hired, mentioned the emotional involvement and the creation of emotional ties between them and the elderly, as a determining factor for conviviality and satisfaction of all involved in the care dynamics. In this sense, it is important to speak of "caregivers of elderly" is to speak of a "profession" in which intertwine assemblages of professional, family care and friendship with their different skills and conditions.