Fatiga por compaixão e fatores de proteção psicosociais de profissionais da saúde em ações humanitárias

Abstract

The present work aims to present an investigation on mental health indicators in health professionals who work in humanitarian actions. Humanitarian work has proven to be dangerous over the years, causing over time, emotional or physical trauma to many professionals. Due to several natural disasters, which affected large nations, the number of Organizations and Humanitarian Actions has increased. To deal with disasters, the humanitarian worker needs to be able to deal with flexibility and adapt quickly to the reality of the current context, running the risk of developing symptoms of depression, PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and compassion fatigue, a syndrome of biological, psychological and social exhaustion, a very important indicator, studied in health professionals, considered the greatest threat to the mental health of professionals, especially those who work directly with trauma and victims. Health professionals, in direct contact with people who are suffering, at risk of death, or in pain, can lead them to a secondary model of prolonged stress, called Compassion Fatigue, which can be labeled as “Cost of caring”, or “Emotional pain”. The methodology used was a cross-sectional, descriptive exploratory research, carried out using the chain reference sampling technique or the snowball technique. The study was conducted online through the Google Forms survey management application. The results show that these professionals receive more support from family than leadership, colleagues, and friends, and the younger the professional, the higher the compassion fatigue index.