‘Otherness’ of pain in collective health practices: Implications for healthcare for the aged

Abstract

This article seeks to understand the significance attributed by the elderly in the community to their experiences of pain based on the approach given to pain in collective health practices. The survey adopts a qualitative approach of an anthropological nature, grounded on the prerequisites of ethnography. Individual interviews were held, using a semi-structured script, with a universe of 57 elderly people. The Signs, Meanings and Actions methodology oriented the collection and analysis of the data, making possible investigation of the representations and concrete behaviors associated with the experience of pain. There was the sense of the experience of pain in the practice of public health in relation to two analytical categories associated with the health / disease process and care relationships in public health services. The experience of pain modulates the concept of health / disease of respondents and mediates the production of otherness in collective health practices, showing the need of a other-related dialogue that does not always established with the professional care. It is essential that this dialogue happens to be transmuted into care that soothes and comforts.