Psychological Complaints at Psychological Emergency Service Associated with Referral to Extended Screening in a Psychology School Clinic

Abstract

The Psychological Emergency Service (PES) at psychology school clinics is an unscheduled and free psychological service to meet urgent demands. From this service, some patients whose complaints require more time for clinical work are referred to the Extended Screening (ES), a modality composed of six extra appointments. This study aims to analyze the sociodemographic profile of patients seen on PES in a Brazilian Psychology School Clinic, and to identify the demands that motivated referral to the ES, for better qualification of the care offered. This is a descriptive analysis research, carried out based on data from the medical records of 46 patients who went through the PES and were referred to the ES at the institution, between the years 2019 and 2021. Sociodemographic data were collected and, from the session reports, a content analysis of the thematic analysis modality was performed to identify the complaints. The participants’ age ranged from 18 to 65 years, with a mean of 32.28 years (sd = 10.95). There was a predominance of female participants (71.74%), that completed High School (39.14%) and had an income from one to two Brazilian minimum wages (32.61%). The most frequent complaints were depressive symptoms (56.52%) and difficulties in interpersonal relationships (32.61%). The results obtained, besides allowing the survey of the social and demographic profile of the clientele of the PES at the Psychology School Clinic, and demonstrating its social relevance by providing free psychological care, also show to be of great importance for the definition of more accurate criteria for referral to the ES of patients seen on PES.