Loneliness among institutionalized elderly people and the effect of physiotherapy

Abstract

Although the elderly is surrounded by many people in nursing homes, they feel lonely , since those who played an important role in their lives are absent. Physiotherapy can provide some relief by looking at the elderly as a biopsychosocial being in his/her environment. To verify the effect of Physiotherapy on institutionalized elderly people who suffer from loneliness.: Qualitative research conducted at the São Vicente de Paulo Nursing Home in Londrina/PR. Participated in the research 06 people over 65, who were seen by Physiotherapy Interns at Universidade do Paraná (Unopar). Data were collected through non-structured interviews and analyzed by the hermeneutics- dialectics technique. Findings were based on one of the eighteen significances introduced in the dissertation “The significance of a physiotherapy internship in a long-stay nursing home”. Among the most cited activities by the elderly were walks, movement, massages and conversations. Loneliness relief was expressed in several ways: reduced sadness, humanization through the care and attention given by the students, companionship to share a moment and change the day, and a moment to vent something that was kept inside .The movement, physical contact and words have great power to “touch” the emotional through the affection and human warmth transferred by the students, thus relieving the elderly from their loneliness.