El Sistema Nacional Integrado de Cuidados de Uruguay (SNIC): análisis del trabajo de cuidado en la experiencia del Programa de Asistentes Personales (PAP)

Abstract

In the present research, the institutionalization of care work in Uruguay is analyzed from the process of implementation of the Sistema Nacional Integrado de Cuidados (SNIC). To do this, it is proposed to investigate the main gender problems associated with care work, addressing the concept of care work, as well as the discussions that cross it because of its interdisciplinary nature and the gender debate. Consequently, the SNIC is part of the existing social protection matrix, so the main transformations that it underwent with emphasis on the 21st century are examined. The care policy embodied by the SNIC is described in depth, incorporating its transversal axes such as gender perspective and co-responsibility and its central concepts such as autonomy, dependence, care. This public policy is examined through various regulatory documents and interviews carried out with the personnel who manage the policy within the National Secretariat of Care. The Personal Assistant Program (PAP) is analyzed within the context of the SNIC, which constitutes a subsidy for people in a situation of severe dependency, offering them regulated access to home care services. The PAP analysis incorporates the study of the data obtained through interviews with personal assistants. The main contributions that the research collects are in the field of care regulation from the systemic perspective, where the SNIC incorporates the contributions of the theoretical field and its critiques. There are major challenges to combat gender inequality in the same before the difficulty of change in the current organization of care, which is characterized by its devaluation and feminization.