Palliative care on home care: the vision of managers, health professionals and family caregivers
Palliative care; home care service; health policies; family caregiver
The right to health for all citizens is guaranteed as a fundamental social right. It is by the
means of public health policies that this right is put into practice, through the provision
of health services to the population. On October 31, 2018, the Ministry of Health
published resolution number 41, which regulates the provision of palliative care as part
of the integrated continuous care within the scope of the Unified Health System (SUS).
According to the guidelines for palliative care and chronic pain control, the Ministry of
Health understands that palliative care in Home Care (HC) enables dehospitalization,
reductions of complications from long hospitalizations and the reduction of the high
costs that are envolved by the hospitalization process. HC promotes a partnership with
the family, working together with the community, strengthening social support
networks, it is a kind of health care offered in the patient's home, aiming to guarantee
the continuity of care. The SAD provides the patient a directly care linked to aspects
related to its family structure, the infrastructure of home and the necessary structure for
each type of illness, avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations and reducing the risk of
infections. In view of the above, the research “Palliative care on home care: the view of
managers, health professionals and family caregivers”, has the general objective, for
doctoral purposes, of analyzing the process of palliative care in Home Care (HC) from
the perspective of managers, health professionals and family caregivers. This research
proposal will consist of a qualitative-descriptive field study in which semi-structured
interviews are going to be carried out by managers and health professionals who work
in the SAD and caregivers of patients who are assisted through the policy, in four
municipalities in Southwest Goiás. The understanding of the study participants will be
based on the theory of social representations and the discourse of the collective subject,
which is interested in identifying the processes by which people describe and
understand the world in which they live. Data researched on platforms on the subject
revealed that the research in Brazil on the subject of palliative care is in its infancy and
also indicated that the experience of family caregivers, in this context, generates mostly
negative feelings. Still, it was possible to observe that these feelings come from the
insecurity associated with the insufficient professional support provided to them. In the
present research, it is intended to carry out actions and interventions that will contribute
to broaden the understanding of palliative care by health professionals and managers,
qualifying the care offered to people who experience threatening situations from their
lives and from their families and caregivers, through the principles and guidelines of
palliative care, also considering the perception and experience of professionals and
family caregivers. Understanding palliative care is of paramount importance, since the
lack of knowledge and clarity of what palliative care is can lead to an inappropriate
form of care.