Community health agents (CHAs) provide links between communities and the health system within the Family Health Program (FHP) and are the only workers required to live in the community where they work. They maintain direct, continuous and uninterrupted community contact. This paper discusses the process of constructing and maintaining agents' credibility in relationships with their community and the subjective factors resulting from living and working congruently. The methodology proposed for work psychodynamics was used among CHAs in Pirituba, State of São Paulo. It was concluded that agents experience embarrassing situations during their work, consequent to belonging to the same community within which they play their professional role. The way that the FHP functions and the precarious situation of other levels of the health system are sources of additional suffering. This porosity between living and working in the same community excessively exposes the workers, with high contamination of their non-working time.
Community health agent; Workers' health; Working conditions; Mental health and work; Qualitative research