The significant growth of the aging population in contemporary Brazil is forcing society to face the challenge of the lack of facilities with acceptable standards of care. UnATI/UERJ was entitled to promote a deep reform in one of the biggest institutions of Brazil devoted to the care and shelter for older people - Abrigo Cristo Redentor. The paper deseribes the main lines of this proeess, unfortunately interrupted in its very beginnings: the promotion of eommon aetivities for different ages and social strata; the implementation of a eenter for leisure and dayeare and the improvement of managerial proeedures. Mental health reform eould be viewed as a paradigm of the ehanges proposed, most of them short-lived.
Colleetive health; gerontology; aging population; shelter; health management; prevention