THE PHENOMENON OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST THE ELDERLY AND THE CARE OF THE PSYCHOLOGIST IN PRIMARY CARE

Abstract

Introduction: With population-ageing, many health needs of the elderly population that demands care emerged, like domestic violence. It is from this that the psychologist work in primary care cross many strategies that look for caring of elderly people that suffer with this phenomenon. Methodology: It’s a qualitative, descriptive, and exploratory study. 14 psychologists participated in this study, but only 7 were considered to the study objectives. To the data collect was used, firstly, an electronic questionary. Then, semi-structured interviews were applied. The analysis occurred by Bardin Thematic Content Analysis. Results: The most part of the elderlies’ profile is female, black, with few social resources. Psychological violence and negligence are the more common types of violence, although cases of abandonment and physical abuse occur as well. Ensuring accessibility and equity for users, mostly in pandemic times, is the main difficulty found. The groups are the main strategy used to promote health and prevent violence, although there are many difficulties in this process as the lack of structure in health posts and the no contribution of some employees on interdisciplinary work. Conclusion: Domestic violence against elder people is evidenced by professionals besides the few cases identified and the pandemic impacts on their monitoring.