A pandemia de covid-19 e os idosos em situação de vulnerabilidade social: relato de experiência do CREAS de Santa Maria

Abstract

The Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic has been one of the biggest challenges in the contemporary scenario. The calamity situation imposed by the pandemic demands in-depth studies, especially on the impacts on the lives of families in situations of social vulnerability and its relationship with the expressions of the social issue. In this segment, it is important to understand how the elderly public, more susceptible to the contagion and aggravations of the virus, suffered the impacts of the pandemic. This Course Completion Work aims to verify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the elderly public, in a situation of social vulnerability. To this end, a theoretical-bibliographic research was carried out on the pandemic and its impacts on the living conditions of the elderly in situations of social vulnerability, having as a criterion the constitutive dimensions of the concept of poverty. In order to establish a link between theory and reality, an experience report of the Mandatory Curricular Internship was also carried out, developed with elderly people who are assisted by the Specialized Reference Center for Social Assistance in the city of Santa Maria. The experience report contributes not only to the description, but also and, above all, to the understanding and interpretation of the phenomena. As a result, the elderly public, in a situation of social vulnerability, suffered more intensely from the social and economic impacts of the pandemic period. This population segment experienced greater impoverishment, often having to live with food insecurity, obstacles and restrictions in access to health, difficulty or lack of access to technologies, fundamental for communication, especially in the period of social distancing. In many homes, the elderly had to share their benefe with family members, as they were the only source of family income. They also suffered from negligence, abandonment and loneliness by family members or the government, numerous times, they were ill or with worsening of pre-existing diseases and were denied medical or hospital support. Other elderly people who were still working needed to stop working, as they belonged to the risk group for COVID-19. It is concluded that the population segment of the elderly, invisible and excluded before civil society and the State, experienced an even greater aggravation of the expressions of the social issue, in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic.