Perceptions about the emergency psychological service at a Women's Police Station

Abstract

The emergency psychological service held at Women's Police Stations (DDMs) is a tool in the combat against women violence. However, on-duty emergency workers are included in an emotionally intense environment. We aimed at analyzing the perceptions of DDM on-duty emergency workers and agents about gender violence, as well as its psychic impacts on their personal and work routines. We interviewed 23 women aged between 19 and 56 (M=28, 26; DP=10, 15), and analyzed the obtained data using IRAMUTEQ. We evaluated 1,304 text segments, retaining 98.27% of the total, which originated six classes. The most expressive among those was Class 1 “service impact”, with 21.55% of the text segments. Even though the emergency psychological service triggers physical and emotional wear and tear, DDM on-duty emergency workers and agents do not receive emotional support to perform their functions, thus developing personal coping strategies.