[Self-esteem and quality of life: essential for the mental health of police officers].

The results here shown are part of an action-research that aimed to elaborate, apply and evaluate a pilot project for contributing to the mental health of Rio de Janeiro police officers. This research comprises both quantitative and qualitative approaches in an ex-ante and ex-post evaluation pattern. The subjects of this research were 148 police officers serving in a special division of the city of Rio de Janeiro Police Department (76 were placed in the Experimental Group and 72 in the Control Group, according to certain variables). The article focuses on the results of the assessment made through standardized scales of self-esteem (Rosenberg Scale), quality of life (WHOQOL-Bref), and is complemented with a qualitative assessment using Content Analysis. The results show that interventions aimed at producing emotional support for police officers with emphasis on Quality of Life and Self-Esteem are possible and useful.