Docilidade Ambiental: espaços de convivência na promoção de qualidade de vida de Idosos

Abstract

The contributions of environmental docility have brought new perspectives to study of well-being and quality of life among the elderly. It is in this line that this research has the purpose of analyze aspects of environmental docility in social use of public spaces for the coexistence of the elderly in an institution in the city of Manaus-AM. This multi-method approach research used the techniques of systematic and participative observation, as well as the application of semistructured questionnaires. Twenty elderly (16F; 4M), considered members of the Programa Idoso Feliz participa Sempre ( Happy Elderly Always Participates program) - PIFPS of the Federal University of amazonas- UFAM / AM. The results showed that for these elderly people, the policies laws have strengthened their rights, but they still prejudice of other segments of society. For these elderly people, such laws ignore aspects of facilitating mobility and accessibility to the elderly. In this way the programs are often inaccessible by facing the city. Another limiting factor of their participation is the fragility of health that finds little support from health care agencies. The elderly once they have overcome such obstacles that limit their participation, it’s normal that they have fewer environmental pressures. In this space the elderly finds possibilities for restoring their emotions and physics. In addition, the living space offers a welcoming physical environment whose affordances promote aspects of psychosocial well-being, even when it is considered minor feature to the program. It is in this environment that it is limited in its specific functions of care for the elderly that environmental docility reveals itself and promotes the building of skills and abilities for healthy aging.