Family and cultural sociodemographic barriers and their influence on the mental health care of female market vendors

Abstract

This paper sought to analyze which factors act as barriers to access to mental health care for women working in an open-air market located in the town of Feira de Santana, state of Bahia, Brazil. This is a qualitative-descriptive study conducted with 21 female market vendors. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect information, and the resulting corpus was then subjected to thematic analysis. The main barrier perceived was the fragility or lack of connection between users and Primary Health Care (PHC) services, which compromises continuity of care, recognition of mental health needs, and the development of appropriate care pathways. In this regard, the findings indicate that limited access to mental health care stem from structural, organizational, and relational barriers in health services, especially the inability to establish bonds, provide care, and offer longitudinal follow-up. The absence of this bond reinforces inadequate care pathways and contributes to the invisibility of the market women’s psychological suffering. Therefore, there is a clear need to strengthen PHC as a privileged space for mental health care, with practices that are sensitive to working conditions, gender inequalities, and the deconstruction of stigmas and social prejudices that hinder self-care.