Abstract
The mental health of health professionals who worked directly in services during the COVID-19 pandemic to care for patients affected by the disease became a fundamental issue to be considered, given the several consequences of this activity for these professionals. This article aimed to understand the challenges and demands of health professionals concerning support to address the emotional and physical exhaustion of working on the so-called frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic. The qualitative methodological approach was based on semi-structured interviews conducted online with these professionals after the first months of the pandemic. The hero’s place in which they were set, even if only in media discourses, soon gave way to their weaknesses and fragile work relationships to emerge: stress, fear, and the listening and reception desire. Marcel Mauss’ gift theory was brought up considering that new ways of reading and interpreting health work relationships contribute to necessary and urgent reformulations of their current context, targeting mental health and, more broadly, the comprehensive health of healthcare professionals.
Key words:
COVID-19; Mental health; Health professionals