Home Visit Care: Contributions to Transforming Care for Older Adults with Neurocognitive Disorders in Colombia

Abstract

Home care encompasses activities conducted within the patient's home, aimed at providing care, monitoring, and prevention to support both the individual and their caregiver, ultimately enhancing quality of life. This form of care requires adjustments in the setting, roles, and relationships traditionally associated with clinical and hospital services. From an interactionist perspective, this article examines how specialized home visits in geriatrics and psychiatry serve as a potential setting for addressing the needs of patients and their families facing neurocognitive disorders. It also highlights the importance of this setting for interdisciplinary work and training. Based on content analysis from 11 semi-structured interviews, 2 focus groups, and field notes collected between November 2018 and October 2022, the findings reveal that specialized home visits foster personalized, humane care rooted in trust-building. Additionally, they serve as a prime pedagogical and training space. However, these visits face individual, community, and social barriers. Applying theoretical and methodological frameworks from social sciences provides deeper insight into this setting.