RACISMO AMBIENTAL NA SAÚDE MENTAL DE COMUNIDADES QUILOMBOLAS RURAIS

Environmental racism involves practices that marginalize communities, especially racial and ethnic minorities, exposing them to adverse environmental conditions and excluding them from redistributive public policies. This descriptive correlational study, with a quantitative approach, investigated the socio-economic and mental health conditions of the quilombola communities of Damásio and Santa Rita dos Cardosos, in Guimarães, Maranhão. Using IBM SPSS v.24 software, descriptive analyses, and tests such as Chi-square, Spearman's correlation and ANOVA were carried out, after checking for normality. The sample, with an average age of 48.3 years, indicated that 34.1% had finished high school and 30.6% had not finished elementary school; 80% live in brick houses and 98.8% have their own paid-off house, with 72.9% having an artesian well water supply. With regard, to mental health, 50.6% reported good health and 20% excellent. Individuals with higher levels of schooling showed more signs of depression, and higher levels of stress were associated with a perception of poorer mental health. We conclude that environmental racism and barriers to accessing essential services contribute to mental suffering, highlighting the need for public policies that promote the social and economic inclusion of these populations.