Basic attention plan to promote preventive health among the elderly

One phenomenon with the largest impact of this century is the aging of the world's population. This fact demands knowledge of multiple faces that characterizes the process of human aging. Among many others, Brazil is also a country that grows together with its elderly population. The majority of specialized assistance programs are developed by public services. Although they emphasize the care and treatment of associated aging illnesses, they are still crawling in the direction of effective approaches for behavioral practices targeting the work of primary prevention. The discrepancy between educational programs concerned with the spreading of information regarding illness and health, and the reality of how difficult it is to access these types of services is enormous. The difficulty to execute health practices illustrates only one of the aspects discussed in this complex challenge to subsidize efficient health assistance for this population.With this in mind, this study has the objective to evaluate programs offered to the elderly executed by the Health Office of the city of João Pessoa, Paraiba, Brazil. This documented research is based on reports and action plans, along with others programs that consider strategies in promoting and preventing health among the elderly. These analyzed documents point towards the lack of a multi-disciplinary approach which would focus on the real necessities and unique singularity of the elderly in agreement with their mental and physical capacity. Through this perspective, an educative process that considers preventive actions in health must be personalized to increase the chances of the adoption of healthy behaviors. It would increase the possibility of an active aging process essential for an improved quality of life.