This essay sets the context of mental health and worker's health care in Brazilian National Health System and discusses possible actions regarding work-related mental health. It begins by presenting the complexity of both Mental Health and Worker´s Health programmatic areas and points out two main challenges yet to overcome in the current context: integrating both health care systems and rejecting the current "culture", in which work receives a positive connotation, while psychic suffering/illness is seen as a personal weakness. Based on reports of experience, the article also brings up the possibilities and challenges of work--related mental health care in different levels of care offered by Brazilian National Health System. It focuses more specifically on possible actions to be taken at primary care level as well as at the potential integration between mental health specialized services and worker's health, aiming at establishing causal nexus. It also demonstrates the importance of sentinel surveillance and the need of compulsory notification of work-related mental health disorders.
mental health and work; mental health; occupational health; health system; mental health disorders