I - Factores de sustentabilidade social e cultural das instituições de apoio a pessoas idosas em Portugal: estudo num município rural

This article is based on a research whose aim isto discover and systematize the factors that condition the social and cultural sustainability factors of support institutions for elderly people and the perspective of the institutions’ managers and local bodies. This is a mixed method of research, which used two questionnaires, one for 97 members of institutions for elderly people and another for 138 users of those institutions, and interviews with the institutions’ managers and local authorities. The research demonstrated that there is a wide range of sustainability factors in the social and cultural domain, the most relevant of which are as follows: social support needs; adaptation of services to needs; participation by civil society; empowerment of institutions; overall user satisfaction; prominence of the institutions; guarantee of respect for cultural differences.