Instutionalized aged people: Reasons expressed in the collective subject discourse

Fast population aging is basically due to reduced mortality and fecundity, as well as to socioeconomic, cultural and technological development. This aging process has given rise to changes to age pyramid, as both decreased young population and increased elderly population give the countries social, economic and political concerns. Among them, violence stands out as a public health problem demanding protection and prevention measures and counteractive mechanisms. In this sense, this survey aimed to analyze the collective subject discourse on the elderly for the reasons that have determined their institutionalization in a nursing home. This qualitative approach survey was performed in a Nursing Home in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil, and included 13 elderly individuals living in that institution. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed according to the Collective Subject Discourse (DSC) technique. As a result, the following core ideas were identified by that technique: negligence and lack of option. DSC showed the violence interface with aging-related cultural and social aspects. Institutionalization derived from family abandonment, gaps in social co-responsibility, and ineffective healthcare and citizenship policies for the elderly. In this sense, it is necessary to discuss the aged people’s role in postmodern society as a political, economic and social aspect, by enforcing the provisions of such healthcare policies for the elderly.