Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: TAUANA CRISTINA SANTANA

INDIGENOUS MENTAL HEALTH IN TIMES OF A PANDEMIC: 

CONTRIBUTIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY TO COUNTING COVID-19 BY THE INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS OF RONDÔNIA

Pandemic; Psychology; Indigenous Health

The Coronavirus (or COVID-19) pandemic impacted not only the population of the cities, but also – and in a desolate way – the indigenous communities, which, the death of previous generations directly reflects on the loss of stories of these people, since orality is one of the most used means to convey history. In this scenario, the psychologist's work and research on the impacts of COVID-19 on the indigenous population, also contemplating cultural aspects, customs and particularities (such as ancestry and how it is transmitted), become crucial. This research has a qualitative approach, using documental research as a technical procedure. For data collection, semi-structured interviews and a focus group were carried out. It was proposed to interview psychologists who work and/or study indigenous mental health in the state of Rondônia. There are many indigenous populations and each one has its own ethnicity, culture and language. Thus, one should not generalize the impacts of COVID-19 and neither should the contributions of Psychology to the many indigenous peoples. When thinking about the impacts of COVID-19, it is worth discussing the forms of relationship that indigenous people have with their health and disease processes. It is always worth remembering that the pandemic brought many deaths, modifying the processes of grieving. It is only from a contextualized action, considering the knowledge of indigenous peoples, that Psychology can contribute. It is putting yourself in the place of the one who listens, because these people already have a voice and need to be heard. Thus, psychological work must be committed to the population and consider every aspect of the indigenous well-being of each population, so that it does not run the risk of being a generalist science with so little effectiveness for indigenous well-being.