A atuação do/a assistente social no processo de desospitalização de pessoas idosas

Abstract

This article, part of a course completion study, addresses the process of discharging elderly individuals with weakened family ties from hospitals. It starts from the premise that aging constitutes a heterogeneous process, traversed by expressions of the Social Question, with manifestations of social exclusion, abandonment, and lack of family support and, above all, public social protection stemming from Social Policies. Thus, the general objective of this study is to problematize the process of discharging elderly individuals with weakened ties from hospitals, emphasizing the importance of family and Social Policies, whose absence presents a set of challenges to the Social Worker in the discharging process. The research is bibliographic and documentary in nature, using a qualitative method based on historical-dialectical materialism. It articulated important documents such as the Statute of the Elderly Person and documents from the CFESS/CRESS system with the reality experienced by the student during her supervised internship in Social Work at the Hospital das Clínicas in Uberlândia/MG. The results highlight the importance of the family as the primary support network, and especially the public attention given to protective social policies such as social assistance and health. Regarding professional practice, it was also observed that the social worker is a professional who requires knowledge and resilience in the face of rights violations and social vulnerabilities experienced by the elderly, necessitating a dynamic approach and a search for protective responses and rights for the individuals, in this case, the elderly and their families.