Saúde psíquica e trabalho : o caso do rompimento da barragem de Fundão em Mariana, MG

Abstract

This thesis aimed to contribute to the debate on the power of work to promote health and illnesses, based on the analysis of the collapse of the Fundão dam and its repercussions on mental health, life, relationships and work of miners who worked in Mariana-MG (Brazil) on that occasion. The specific objectives were: a) to understand the living and working conditions, the experience of the dam failure, the psychosocial context and the repercussions on work, health and life expectancies of the miners who worked in Mariana when the Fundão dam broke; b) to compare the living, working and mental health conditions of miners who worked in Mariana when the Fundão dam broke with those of others who worked in another mined city where no work accident of this magnitude occurred; c) to develop reflective analysis on the results obtained, in the light of existing explanatory models of mental health (Warr's ecological model, Mirowsky and Ross's social causation model, Marchand and Durand’s biopsychosocial model) and contributions from other authors, and from it, to propose a synthesis model for the analysis of mental health at work. Based on the psychosociological approach, a multi-methodological study was carried out, using different sources of information (structured questionnaires – General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), Work-Family Conflict Scale (WFC) – and semi-structured interviews) and data analysis procedures (hermeneutic-dialectic content analysis and statistical analysis). The main results indicated that: a) 56.9% of the participants in Mariana had lower prevalence of mental health and a tendency to Common Mental Disorders (CMDs) above the statistically expected in the population and reports of psychological distress associated with the dam failure and remaining situations ; b) living and working conditions differed among workers in the cities surveyed, and those from Mariana had unfavorable working and living conditions, which contributed to accentuate feelings of malaise, depression and anxiety. These results signaled the relevance of the role of work as a constituent of people's and society's lives, at different levels of analysis, as well as signaling how societal influences and living and working conditions can influence mental health at work. Based on these, we present a synthetic model of mental health at work, considering the intersection of levels of analysis, social position, societal influences (economic and sociopolitical) and working and living conditions. We understand that the application of the model has the potential to deepen reflections in this regard. Competing to leave the question of the power of accidents expanded in modifying societal influences and working and living conditions.