Adoecimento mental em servidores do poder judiciário do Paraná: os efeitos de tecnologia no trabalho

Abstract

Mental suffering related to labour activities is a relatively new tleld of study which has gained increasing importance due to the serious implications that work-processed mental ilInesses bring to societies. In the specitlc case of the Judiciary workers, this condition becomes increasingly more and more important once the pathologies associated to the psychic system are the main cause of work leaves in this group of workers. This research aimed at identifying the effects of technology on mental illnesses in the workers of the Judiciary in the State of Paraná. It has been investigated to which extent the work, as an analytical category, accounts for psychiatric disorders in these workers. The methodological choices consisted of two stages, being the tirst a documentary research in the statistical reports produced by the Occupational HeaIth Service of the target institution. These reports show the total number of workers who asked for a work leave by disease groups organised according to the World Health Organization's Intemational Classitlcation of Diseases (ICD- IO). Reports of medicaI leaves motivated by Mental and Behavioral Disorders (Chapter V of ICD-IO) have been analyzed. The compiled data were: "total number of people affected", "total of days off work", and "specitlc mental and behavioral disorder". With such data, an accurate analysis of the medicaI history of magistrates and public servants chosen by pre-detined criteria was carried ou!. Thus, it was possible to identify individuaIs who did not have previous history of psychiatric pathologies prior to joining the institution. Subsequently, a semi-structured interview was applied to previously selected individuais. This consisted of objective and open questions, whose aim was to identify the possible relationships between the work performed and the development of psychic disorders. The collected responses were analyzed on the lenses of the Discourse Analysis of the Collective Subject methodology. The epistemological path of this research wilI be the Psychodynamics of Work interfaced with labor relations in the present capitalist society as proposed by Christophe Dejours. The research provided elements of analysis of the processes of mental suffering related to work in this category of professionals, pointing to the adoption of new technologies and the consequent changes in work processes that might be related to the mental illnesses of the public servants of the analysed institution. Therefore, it points out to the need of proposing actions with a view to minimizing potential damages to the mental health ofmagistrates and public servants.