Abstract:

We start from the conviction that the Social Educator, as a human development professional, must assume specific functions in the multidisciplinary health care teams, particularly in a time that increasingly needs humanized care. The objective that guided the study was to understand how the Social Educator and health professionals can and should combine efforts in the intervention, taking a holistic view of the aging process as well as the provision of care to the elderly, aimed at training and empowerment, regardless of the limitations of its functional capacity.

This objective led to the research question, which is to know how health professionals recognize the complementarity of the integration of the Social Educator in multidisciplinary teams that provide health care to the elderly? In order to answer this research question, a qualitative investigation with a well-grounded theory design was used. The Study was carried out in the North of Portugal, in three different social responses in the provision of care to the elderly, called "Home Support Service", "Residential Home" and "Health Center" that provide care, temporary and / or permanent, hygiene, doctors, food, cultural, among others. The sample consists of a Nurse and a Doctor at a Health Center; a Social Educator and a Nurse in the Home Support Service; and a Social Educator and a Technical Director of a Residential Home.

Data collection was carried out through a semi-structured interview. In order to take into account ethical issues and maintain the confidentiality of the context studied, as well as the anonymity of the participants, the interviews were identified by E1 to E4. It was requested in writing, and giving information about the purpose of the study, both to the interviewees and to the institutions' directors, the consent to audio record the interviews, which was carried out by the researchers and authors of the study. A total of 7 hours of interviews were obtained. These were introduced in the internal sources of the webQDA software and categorized.

The categories emerged a posteriori, constituting the conceptual map of the study, being:
i) Social Educator and Physician;
ii) Social Educator and Nurse;
iii) Social Educator and Technical Director;
iv) Social Educator and care for the elderly.

From these categories where the responses to Social Educators, Nurses, Physicians and the Technical Director fall mainly, they show evidence of the impact that the Social Educator's intervention has on multidisciplinary teams, that is, health care for the person Elderly women should contemplate care in all dimensions of human life, namely in the integration of the social, family and community dimension of the elderly person, regardless of the associated pathologies and limitations of functional capacity. Triangulating the interviews of Social Educators with those of the other interviewees, it appears that the insertion of Social Educators in multidisciplinary teams in the area of health is enriching and enhancing a more humanized, relational and integrative provision of care, as the the specificity of its praxis fosters an inclusive and successful aging process. In conclusion, the Social Educator becomes fundamental in health care for the elderly, since working in a team with health professionals, they enhance a multidimensional intervention that contributes to a full state of health, according to the definition recommended by the Organization World Health Organization.

Keywords:

Social Education, Social Educator, Elderly Person, Health Care, webQDA.