Políticas públicas sociais com foco no Estatuto do Idoso: um estudo nos municípios de Caibaté/RS e Mato Queimado/RS

Abstract

Public administration is effective in providing state services to meet the needs of the population. This provision of services to citizens takes place, in a special way, through public policies. In the set of public policies, there are social policies and, in these, those of attention to the elderly. The increase in the percentage of elderly people in relation to the general population of Brazil has been increasing in the last three demographic censuses, showing a trend. Seeking to respond to this aging process and provide basic social rights to the elderly, Brazil created Law No. 10,741, enacted on October 1, 2003, which established the Elderly Statute. This legislation starts to demand from the Brazilian State, in its diverse spheres of the federation, the organization of policies, programs and actions of attention to this part of the population. Therefore, this study aims to analyze how the municipalities of Caibaté - RS and Mato Queimado - RS structure social policies to meet the requirements of the Elderly Statute. The study is guided by the principles of dialectical materialism: historicity, contradiction and totality. It works with data obtained by consulting the official websites of the System of Health Indicators and Monitoring of Elderly Policies (SISAP) and Atlas of Human Development in Brazil. color or race, education level, retirement status and income stratification of both municipalities studied. The structures created by the municipalities of Caibaté - RS and Mato Queimado - RS were mapped to meet the requirements of the Elderly Statute, which was accomplished through telephone contact and the application of a questionnaire prepared by the author, based on the Elderly Statute, the which was a roadmap for obtaining data from municipal public agents. From the information collected, it was found that the profile of the elderly in the municipalities of Caibaté - RS and Mato Queimado - RS are similar, with an aging population in both municipalities. In relation to the structures created by the municipalities of Caibaté - RS and Mato Queimado - RS to meet the requirements of the Elderly Statute in the scope of social assistance, health, education, culture and leisure, housing, work and transport, it was found that both comply the requirements set out in the Statute in a partial way, with issues that can be implemented and improved, such as the implementation of elderly care entities, geriatric and gerontological care in outpatient clinics, in addition to work-related issues that are absent in both municipalities, as the creation of programs that stimulate specialized professionalization for the elderly, taking advantage of their potential and skills for regular and paid activities. However, it is understood that the municipalities often do not have the necessary tools and structures for this, as they are small municipalities.