THE SEARCH FOR THE MEANING OF LIFE IN INSTITUTIONALIZED ELDERLY IN TIMES OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

This present research seeks to investigate the meaning of life in institutionalized elderly people during the period of social distancing in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, from the perspective of the Austrian neuropsychiatrist Viktor Emil Frankl. The investigation revolves specifically around the way that the COVID-19 pandemic influences institutionalized elderly people's search for meaning in life. The research was developed in a city in the south of Paraná, in a Long Stay Institution for the Elderly, with the participation of ten people who were voluntarily welcomed. The research was qualitative, field research, descriptive and documentary, with the content analysis of Laurence Bardin. In the end, it was found that, during the pandemic, the elderly people's search for meaning in life changed, as well as their contact with people, routine, travel, health treatment or seeing the family in person. All of this was a consequence of the pandemic, however these consequences directly reflected on the search for meaning in life, valuing the family more and reflecting more on life and on the people who are important to them.