Work and illness risks in Territorial Psychosocial Care: implications for mental health care management

Abstract

The study aims to analyze precarious work due to working conditions that influence the management of mental health care and occupational health. This single case mixed study was conducted in six Psychosocial Care Centers (CAPS) in a Decentralized Health Sector. The Work and Illness Risks Inventory was applied to a total purposeful sample of 35 workers, 15 of whom participated in the projective interview. Data were processed in SPSS 26.0.0.0 as measures of central tendency and dispersion. The interviews were categorized based on the evaluation axes proposed by the inventory, contextualized, and discussed from Edgar Morin’s Complex Thought. The result is critical for most predictors that evaluated the context, human cost, pleasure, distress, and harm related to work in the CAPS. Data illustrated by the workers’ narratives describe the precarious work conditions. Local Unified Health System managers quickly incorporated neoliberalism’s productivist principles, perpetuating substandard work conditions. Mental health care management processes, funding, and legal occupational and contractual conditions must be reviewed to align with Territorial Psychosocial Care (APT).