Acceleration of the population ageing index is a current problem, and Portugal has one of the highest levels of population ageing in the European Union. In 2021, there were 182 elderly people for every 100 young people, and 37% of these elderly people are dependent. Home care services are emerging as a social response to the problem of dependency, and as the population ages, its demand is increasing. In Portugal, most of these services are provided by non-profit organizations whose budgets are generally very reduced.

This work aims to assess the impact of using optimization tools in the planning of home social care services, with the general objective of reducing the unproductive time related with the travelling of caregivers to and from patients’ homes. Through the application of an optimization model for home social care problem new routes are proposed for the home social care service provided by the Cáritas Diocesana de Setúbal. The results show that the routes achieved by minimizing the travel time will allow the introduction of new patients into the system and contributed to improving the efficiency of such services. Moreover, it demonstrates the potential of mathematical models in logistics planning for home social care.