Psychology and Health Promotion in the Public Sector

Since 2008, with the implementation of the Health Care and Safety at Work Policy for Federal Civil Servants, the debate on health care for federal civil servants has intensified. The policy is being implemented through health units run by a multi-professional team, in which psychologists play a key role. This study discusses how health-promoting psychological practices have been developed for civil servants within the National Social Security Institute (INSS), based on reflections on the challenges of conducting worker health actions in the organisational space and outlining the role of psychologists in public policies. Interviews with psychology professionals at the INSS pointed to an important moment of questioning about the effectiveness of health promotion actions focused on individuals lifestyles and the emergence of molecular movements in the form of strategies committed to empowering workers to transform the organisation of work, articulated with the perspective of a clinical psychology that is transversal to workers health in the organisation.