Study performed in six Long-Stay Institutions to the Elderly (ILPIs) for low-income senior citizens, in three regions of the country, with the aim of examining how the ILPIs internal and organizational system used to keep structural coupling with the surrounding systems. Data were collected through interviews, observation and the analysis was based on concepts of the Luhmann Theory from Social Systems. As a result, the belonging rules did not encourage aid proposals to contemplate the stimulus for independent life and individuality of the residents. The structural couplings with the external environment used to generate negative aspects within the ILPIs, such as lack of bonding with programmatic actions of the public service for basic health care, inability to maintain the multidisciplinary team and fully adapt the infrastructure and distance from relatives to that routine. As a positive aspect, there was a team potentialization with the presence of students and professors.
Aged; Homes for the aged; Systems theory