Reflection on the public home care caregivers profiles

Abstract

Introduction: The increase of life expectancy and the decrease in mortality rate have resulted in changes in the epidemiological profile with predominance of non-communicable chronic diseases and global changes in the care system. This scenario has generated increased demands for caregivers, which in Brazilian reality, tends to arise in the family environment. Objective: This study aimed to know and reflect on the caregivers’ profiles of public home care in the city of Goiânia, Goiás. Methods: The data were collected through the application of a caregiver characterization tool and presented descriptively. Results: The caregiver’s profile of this study corroborates the ones described in the specific literature. Most of them are females, married, patient’s spouse or daughter, having health problems, dedicating twelve or more hours to caring and informal exercise of this activity. Conclusion: The results show the significance of family caregivers within the family care and
lead to the reflection about this role in the care sphere and the need for public policies that offer a support social network and that are tuned with this reality.