Serviço Social, envelhecimento e extensão universitária: a contribuição dos assistentes sociais na UnATI/UERJ

Abstract

The objective of this thesis was to analyse the work of the social worker in the program of the open university of the third age known as UnATI / UERJ, in its relation with the educational character and the ethical - political project of Social Work. The main objectives of this research were: the first problematized aging as a global phenomenon inserted in developed and developing capitalist societies, addressing the conceptions of aging based on gerontological discourse and authors who criticize this approach, perceiving aging as one of the refractions of the social question, rescuing also the policies for the elderly in Brazil. In the second axis, the university extension in the context of crisis of the public universities and its relationship with the programs of university of the third age, highlighting the proposal of the UNATI / UERJ and the experience of Social Work teacher in the development of the articulated extension to the teaching and research developed at the Faculty of Social Work of UERJ, one of the first units of the university to participate in said program. The third axis brings the analysis of the research carried out with the social workers of the program who develop projects and activities of extension in the following areas of the program: Center for Coexistence and Health of the Elderly. We identified that the social workers who arrived at the UnATI at different times, have their activities referred specifically to one of the two signaled areas. They emphasize educational practices emphasizing a relation of respect and exchange of knowledge with the users and highlight the involvement with the issues arising from the aging of our population, demonstrating that it is in the space of the struggle for the guarantee of rights and implementation of policies for the elderly that identify in the area of the ethical - political project of Social Service.