Cuidar em casa: Quais as dificuldades

The demographical aging, the changings in the organization of the society and the world are important challenges in the Health Politics.The success of these politics lays in the link between for- mal and informal systems and in the recognition and appreciation of the roles of care giver ant patient. Goals: to identify the difficulties of the care giver and the dependent patient at home; to know how the patient lives his/her spirituality as a coping strategy. Method: descriptive study, qualitative approach. 250 dependent patients and 250 care givers were part of the study. Data were collected at the patients’ homes through semi-structured interviews. Results: the majority of care givers strug- gles. Those hard times are related to the lack of information (70,3%), of technical help (64,9%), of commuting to Health services (42,6%) and lack of support from Health care professionals.The patients’ difficulties are related to the lack of a doctor, a nurse or a physiotherapist at home; to the lack of economical, familiar, emotional and spiritual support and also to the inefficiency in care com- bination.Spirituality has an important role in the way patients face the illness and in giving them a state of inner harmony. Discussion / Conclusion: The difficulties identified are the ones that Orientações Estratégicas do Plano Nacional de Saúde e de Segurança Social (2004-2010) want to fight back: the creation of integrated health politics and Social Security that allow the development of actions closer to dependent patients