It was in mid-2019 that Luísa (fictitious name) had an unexpected turn in her work routine. When one of the service colleagues was on leave, the doctor at the José Joaquim Fernandes Hospital in Beja had to accumulate two functions. “In addition to the overhead, the replacement came with management responsibilities, which he hated.”
The extra work and the disgust for the new responsibilities precipitated the changes that he began to feel shortly after: first, a tiredness that never went away; then insomnia; then a state of permanent frustration. “After six months of this, at the end of the year, he was desperate and almost without the strength to seek help,” says the 59-year-old doctor.
Fortunately, he didn’t have to look far for her. All she had to do was dial 4168 on the desk phone – the institution’s occupational medicine extension – and, a week later, she was sitting in Pedro Moura’s office. Specialized in occupational psychiatry, the doctor has been planning, implementing and coordinating, since 2017, an innovative project: it is called Progerpsi – the abbreviation for Program for Integrated Management of Psychosocial Risks in Professionals of the Local Health Unit of Baixo Alentejo (ULSBA) – and it contradicts the famous aphorism “in a blacksmith’s house, a wooden skewer”.
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Mental is a section of the Observer dedicated exclusively to issues related to Mental Health. It is the result of a partnership with the Luso-American Foundation for Development (FLAD) and the Hospital da Luz and has the collaboration of the College of Psychiatry of the Order of Physicians and the Order of Portuguese Psychologists. It is completely independent editorial content.
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Source: Observadora
