Cultural singularities: Indigenous elderly access to Public Health Service

Abstract

Objective: Describing how Kaingang seniors and their primary caregivers experience access to public health services. Method: A qualitative study guided by ethnography, conducted with 28 elderly and 19 caregivers. Data were collected between November 2010 and February 2013 through interviews and participative observation analyzed by ethnography. Results: The study revealed the benefits and difficulties of the elderly access to health services, the facility to obtain health care resources such as appointments, medications and routine procedures, and the difficulties such as special assistance service problems and delays in the dispatching process between reference services. Conclusion: The importance of knowing and understanding the cultural specificities of the group in order to offer greater opportunities for the elderly access to health services was reinforced.