Health service for the elderly. An approach from social representations in Santa Clara

Currently, several nations of the world are experiencing a process of population aging that affects and reconfigures the dynamics of societies. The province of Villa Clara is not exempt from this problem, presenting the aging of the structure by age of the highest population of the country. Due to the physical, mental and access vulnerabilities that people in this age group have, it becomes urgent to study the health services provided to them. The general objective was to: Analyze the social representation of senior citizens of the health services offered by the Santa Clara Polyclinic of the municipality of the same name. The survey, the free association of words and the semi-structured interview for the extraction of information were used methodologically. The main results indicate that the social representation that older adults have about the health services they receive has greater negative connotations than positive ones. The social significance of the research is that by being an exploratory study on the criteria that an age group has about a social service, it allows social policies and social services to rearrange them according to needs and demands. The novelty of the research is given in the insufficiency of studies carried out in this regard in the province which makes it a pioneering research from the field of sociology in this subject.