The significant presence of foreign workers in the Italian social and sanitarian services brings new challenges to professional identity and integration. This action research, which has its theoretical foundation in psychoanalysis, describes the culturally oriented representations of workers of a geriatric institute and suggests a formative laboratory prototype of sharing of different views on the assistance for elderly. Only if the multicultural encounter forges ties based on mutual recognition will it be possible to establish good "mixed" practices of care and cure in institutional contexts.
Foreigner; Multiculturality; Care; Elderly; Institution