Long-term care institutions for elders and the health system.

Objective: Analyze Long Term Care Institutions for Elders (ILPI) organizational social system and its relation to the National Health System (SUS). To identify communication that occurs in the structural couplings between the ILPIs and the SUS and to analyze resonances of the structural coupling between the SUS and the ILPIs.

Method: A descriptive, exploratory qualitative study using the functional Niklas Luhmann's method.

The economic survival of long stay institutions for impoverished aged people.

Objective: Identify structural couplings of Retirement Institutions for the Aged (RIA) with the economic system, in order to maintain those institutions that shelter the poor aged in the Brazilian context.

Method: Qualitative, exploratory-descriptive study. The data collection was carried out through interviews with seven leading people and eight aged people, analysis of communication of 52 non-profit Brazilian RIAs, both public and private.