title: [Home visits by community health agents to families with frail elderly individuals].
abstract: The scope of this study was to understand the significance that community health agents attribute to the home visit conducted with families with frail elderly individuals and if the technique has served as a tool for care for this group. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with community health agents in the city of Bambui in the State of Minas Gerais. They were all recorded, transcribed and analyzed. The Signs, Meanings and Actions model was used in the collection and analysis of data. In their ways of thinking and acting, seeing aging as being inexorably associated with disability, the agents "try to help" people who have a sociocultural context similar to theirs to get access to health services. As they do not receive guidelines for working with families with elderly individuals, they intuitively establish "equitable" criteria that ensure they visit more risk groups (the elderly, needy, sick and poor). The visits are in response to immediate demands from these groups, but the focus of attention is based on sickness and the provision of medication and procedures. The need for reorientation of the care model, implementation of the National Health Policy for the Elderly and specific actions of care to families with frail elderly individuals are not perceived.
authors.affiliation: Núcleo de Estudos em Saúde Pública e Envelhecimento, Centro de Pesquisas René Rachou, Fiocruz, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil, kalvesmagalhaes@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Kelly Alves
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Magalhães
authors.affiliation: Secretaria Municipal de Saúde de Belo Horizonte, Brasil.
authors.forename: Karla Cristina
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Giacomin
authors.affiliation: Núcleo de Estudos em Saúde Pública e Envelhecimento, Centro de Pesquisas René Rachou, Fiocruz, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil, kalvesmagalhaes@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Wagner Jorge
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: dos Santos
authors.affiliation: Núcleo de Estudos em Saúde Pública e Envelhecimento, Centro de Pesquisas René Rachou, Fiocruz, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil, kalvesmagalhaes@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Josélia Oliveira Araújo
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Firmo
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D001938:Brazil; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D005260:Female; D016330:Frail Elderly; D006291:Health Policy; D006792:House Calls; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012944:Social Support