COVID-19 AND THE MENTAL HEALTH OF ELDERLY PEOPLE PARTICIPATING IN COMMUNITY CENTERS

Abstract

The present study focuses on the importance of the participation of elderly people in Community Centers for mental health. In an attempt to understand the subject to be researched, as well as the themes interconnected to this process, including the discussion of concepts necessary for a better understanding of the object, it was necessary to read specific readings in the area of gerontology, mental health, pertinent legislation and COVID-19, in addition to topics such as coexistence groups; the recent change that occurred in terms of basic social protection, which was the reorganization of social assistance services; Service of Coexistence and Strengthening of Bonds; among others. This research aims to investigate the perceptions of the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of older people participating in the Community Centers. With a qualitative approach, based on the dialectical critical method, the research included an exploratory literature review and semi-structured interviews with users of eight Community Centers for the elderly, located in the city of Ponta Grossa/PR, totaling sixteen people interviewed of both sexes. To support the organization of information, the IRAMUTEC software was used, in the sense of constituting the textual corpus, building the word cloud and the similarity tree. The analysis of the results followed the procedures of the content analysis proposed by Bardin (1977) and then the categorization of the data was carried out contemplating three chronological phases: 1) pre-analysis; 2) exploitation of the material; 3) treatment of results, inference and interpretation. Through data analysis, it was possible to capture, with the results in the form of answers, how elderly people participating in the Community Centers had their mental health affected by the consequences left by the COVID-19 pandemic. The interviews were duly allowed by the elderly people, who were also previously informed about the objectives and procedures of the research. It was concluded that the Community Centers for the elderly is an extremely important place, which can provide human emancipation, prevent isolation and social exclusion and is also an environment in which participants can interact with each other, share life experiences, in addition to achieving active and healthy aging.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.56238/sevened2024.031-079