Assistência à saúde mental de estudantes universitários: possibilidades da terapia ocupacional

Abstract

Youth can be a period of greater socioemotional vulnerability due to changes in occupational roles and performances performed in the different contexts of circulation of these subjects and the search for autonomy and independence that occurs in response to the social expectations of a particular culture and historical time (ANDRADE, 2010). In this sense, entering university can trigger a series of conflicts for young people who are often faced with a very different reality in terms of routines, activities, personal relationships, and physical distance from the family, which can interfere in the way these individuals face and solve the conflicts arising from this context that, in turn, has been considered as a potential producer of psychological suffering. Is worth noting that the university began to present an important social role, with the educational policy, in the 1988 constitution, which sought to ensure the right to education for all (ALBUQUERQUE, 2017; IMPERATORI, 2017; CHAVES and SILVEIRA, 2016). In this direction, in view of the institution's accountability towards the entrant, as well as the complexity involved in the students' occupation and their relationship with the university, the literature has pointed out the need for the development of actions of promotion and strategic care directed to the physical and mental health of students (ALBUQUERQUE, 2017). Among the professionals who can be present in the development of such strategies, articulating networks, so that the co-responsibility of the subject in the community where the institution is located, as well as actions to promote their health, is the occupational therapist. Considering the notes in the mental health literature that have signaled the importance of planning and implementing public policies for mental health care of college students, as well as the scarcity of research that focuses on the practice of occupational therapy in this scenario, the present study had as its initial objective to identify, together with occupational therapists who work or have worked in mental health care of college students, how they perceive the possibilities of occupational therapy in this context. Thus, the research was approved by the Committee for Ethics in Research on Human Beings of UFSCar and six occupational therapists with previous or current experience in mental health care of college students, identified from the snowball method, participated. Data were produced by means of semi-structured interviews to be presented to the participants through video call platforms. The interviews were transcribed in full and analyzed using the thematic content analysis technique. The research results were organized based on the characterization of the participants and the categorization of three major themes, raised from the data analysis, which were presented by: the participants' encounter with the field, occupational therapy in the field, which corresponds to their practices and the field of attention to college students, where they expose their perceptions about the profile of students assisted and what they envision in this service. The study pointed out that the participants recognize the field as innovative in their practices, indicating their ability to contextualize the subject at the university as a differential to promote both intersectoral actions of care to students and the monitoring of students through the use of collective and individual activities, among which the Integrative and Complementary Health Practices (IPCPs) have shown to be one of the main resources adopted. The participants also presented their perceptions about the service and the possibilities of occupational therapy in these student care spaces, which corroborates the student assistance policy that is concerned with the permanence of university students. Thus, it is observed that the present study presents elements that can be taken into consideration in the formulation of new study questions and also in the development of more effective planning and action strategies directed at the population of college students that 6 recognize occupational therapy as a possibility of composition and creation of new mental health care practices that strengthen the permanence of students in this period of their lives.