Care for Older Adults in Brazil’s Unified Health System: Organization and Tensions in the Hospital Context

Abstract

The article analyzes the production of care for hospitalized older adults within the scope of specialized health care, problematizing the contradictions between care conceived, at the normative level, as a right and its concrete implementation in everyday hospital practice. Grounded in a theoretical-critical approach to care, the study is derived from qualitative research conducted in a specialized public hospital within Brazil’s Unified Health System. The analysis of the empirical material shows that, even within a public institution, care tends to be organized according to a transfer-oriented familism logic, with the companion assuming an essential role in the organization of hospital care and reinforcing the responsabilization of the family in the care of hospitalized older adults. It is concluded that the production of care, under these conditions, challenges its recognition as a right by shifting responsibilities to the family sphere, even when care is provided within an institutional setting.