ABSTRACT.
This research aimed to investigate the staff mental health at the Specialized Reference Center for Social Assistance (CREAS), Corumbá, State of Mato Grosso do Sul, in 2014. For this, we adopted the theoretical-methodological approach of work psychodynamics to focus on the experiences of pleasure and suffering at work, starting from the hypothesis that the care of individuals in vulnerable situations and violation of rights requires a cognitive and emotional over-investment, causing suffering and psychic wear. Ten professionals of CREAS with elementary and higher education participated in ten meetings for collective interview, which proposed the following questions for discussion and analysis: conditions, organization and labor relations, recognition and valuation, and feelings generated on cases of violence. The experiences of suffering were attributed to lack of infrastructure and equipment, the work overload caused by the demand from other institutions, leading to feelings of anguish, helplessness, sadness and professional devaluation. The pleasure at work was observed by the appreciation for the work done on the part of the users and identification with social work. We concluded that working with the violation of rights affects social and personal relationships of workers, as the discrepancy between prescribed (design) and the actual (implementation) showed reactions of anguish, tearfulness, sadness, helplessness and negative thinking.
Keywords:
Mental health; violence situations; employees of CREAS