Supplementary health system and home care of the elderly in the perspective of critical bioethics

Abstract

Home Care (HC) is currently the main option in elderly dehospitalization, especially in the supplementary system. Varied ethical conflicts arise in the context of assistance along with varied familiar contexts. We performed an explanatory study of two HC cases in health insurance providers, in which the ethical conflicts were delimited in two main Bioethics playing fields: the clinical bioethics, regarding to interpersonal relationships and decision-making on assistance; and the Bioethics applied to public health, regarding to challenges to the organization and provision of services. The conflicts were discussed based on the critical bioethics model. The study generated propositions for reducing some ethical conflicts on HC, and demonstrated the need of more extended studies in order to know in greater length and depth this problem in Brazil.