Saúde mental e trabalho : as vivências dos profissionais que atuam nos Centros de Referência em Saúde do Trabalhador no Brasil

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the mental health of healthcare professionals working at the Occupational Health Reference Centers (Cerest). The precarization of labor in the service sector has been notable since the late twentieth century, particularly within healthcare services. The process of labor flexibilization, grounded in a neoliberal perspective, directly impacts the lived experiences of healthcare workers, as widely documented in the scientific literature. However, as evidenced in the integrative review conducted in this dissertation — the first of its three constituent studies — healthcare professionals working at Cerest, the primary reference service for Occupational Health within Brazil’s Unified Health System (SUS), remain largely invisible in academic research. The theoretical framework adopted in this study was grounded in Ergology, Social Psychology of Work, and the Micropolitics of Living Labor in Act. The research was further composed of two additional studies: (1) the administration of an online questionnaire to 102 respondents, including sociodemographic questions, the Job Content Questionnaire, and the Self-Report Questionnaire-20 (SRQ-20), followed by descriptive and correlational analyses using JASP software; and (2) the conduction of eight semi-structured interviews, all transcribed and analyzed through Mixed Thematic Content Analysis, according to Minayo’s methodological proposal. Findings indicated that professionals working at Cerest are undergoing processes of psychological distress, resulting from the multiple social, cultural, and political challenges they face in their daily work. Their mental health is marked by the presence of Common Mental Disorders, associated with the precarization and flexibilization of their labor activities, situated within a neoliberal context that negatively affects their health–disease process.