SYMBOLISM AND PRACTICES IN A HOME CARE SERVICE: BETWEEN STAFF AND FAMILY CAREGIVERS

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to understand the social implication in the organizing of a home care services around the practices of family caregivers and home care team. We used a symbolic perspective to unravel symbols resulting from social interactions that occurred on the everyday life of the group in order to better understand their meanings. The empirical research was qualitative and descriptive. The data was collected using semi-structured interviews with seven family caregivers and three focus groups with twenty seven home care professionals of a private health company. After transcribing the interviews and focus groups, the data were grouped and categorized by mixed model content analysis. The results show that the interpretations of symbolic aspects interfere in evaluation in opposition to hospital. They conduct the interviewers to a social reconstruction of the family symbolism, in the way it is inserted in an adverse context (the disease), despite partly remain in a family context (home). It is within the dynamics of this reconstruction that practices of the organizational actors are legitimize or rejected, then, must be recognized this dynamic in the professionals training to work in the home care service.