Work Processes and Mental health of mental health professionals: an integrative review

Abstract

Mental health workers are at the centre of the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform, which is a movement that broadens the look on madness and brings new forms of work. Given the exposure of this professional to suffering and its centrality in mental health actions, this article aimed to verify how the national scientific production has discussed the main issues that go through the work process of mental health professionals working in Psychosocial Attention Care Centres (CAPS) and its reflexes on their own mental health. An integrative literature review was carried out in the online databases Biblioteca Virtual de Saúde (BVS) and Pubmed of articles published between 2002 and 2019 resulting in a sample of 25 articles. The review showed that mental health workers are involved in a challenging context when faced with the task of producing mental health care according to the precepts of Psychiatric Reform. It is concluded that the impasses placed, the lack of resources and training to deal with certain situations, relationships between professionals, are situations that cause suffering, and sources of stress. However, mental health work, for these professionals, constitutes pleasure and fulfillment.