Interinstitutional networks and democratization of services in social intervention with older people in Portugal

This article presents an interinstitutional network supporting older people in Portugal and a policy document that institutionalized this type of interinstitutional practices. The data are part of a large corpus collected in the course of interdisciplinary research: “Aging, poverty and social exclusion: an interdisciplinary study on innovative support services.” (https://apseclunl.wordpress.com/). The documentation of good practices in intervention with older people at risk of exclusion were the aim of the research project. The data collected incudes: interviews, observation and recordings of inter-institutional meetings. In the light of the relevant literature, the study discusses the ethnographic account in relation to relevant policy documents (“Rede Social” Interinstitutional Network Program RCM no. 197/97, of 18 November). Describing the main aspects of the intervention strategies with the older population, the article documents the value of these experiences and the approach in policies for the democratization of services and the inclusion of citizens participating in decision making about delivery of services and the promotion of inclusive societies.