Rastreio de situações de trauma entre os profissionais da Atenção Primária à Saúde, por meio do aplicativo APP Mental

Abstract

Health professionals work in unpredictable contexts and are exposed to stressful events with traumatic potential, which causes mental health damage, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This study evaluates the feasibility of the APP Mental application for the prevention and screening of PTSD symptoms among health professionals, using the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL-5). The research adopts a quantitative, cross-sectional design, with approval from the institutional research ethics committee. The sample comprises individuals over 18 years of age, formally employed by the municipal health department and assigned to Primary Health Care services, who interact with the application for 12 weeks. The application administers a sociodemographic questionnaire and asks about experiences of trauma throughout life, and it sends the PCL-5 to users who report trauma, with a cutoff score of 31 or higher. The analysis uses descriptive statistics in RStudio software. The theoretical framework relies on the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria and on studies that associate occupational exposure to traumatic events with psychological distress among health workers. In the partial results, the sample comprises 28 people, mostly women (96.4%), with a mean age of 42 years. Among the 12 PCL-5 respondents, half (50%) score 31 or higher, which indicates greater symptom severity. The study concludes that the preliminary data reinforce the importance of mental health promotion, prevention, and care actions for health workers and indicate the need to develop educational materials on trauma and coping with stress.