Mental health staff views on improving burnout and mental toughness
| Date | 10 July 2017 |
| Pages | 249-259 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JMHTEP-03-2017-0021 |
| Published date | 10 July 2017 |
| Author | Zoe Posner,Jessie Janssen,Hazel Roddam |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health,Mental health education |
Mental health staff views on improving
burnout and mental toughness
Zoe Posner, Jessie Janssen and Hazel Roddam
Abstract
Purpose –Burnout in mental health staff is acknowledged as a major problem. The purpose of this paper is
to gain an understanding of mental health staff views on improving burnout and mental toughness in mental
health staff.
Design/methodology/approach –Ten participants from two mental health rehabilitation units across the
north-west of England took part in a Nominal Group Technique. Participants consisted of mental health
workers from varied roles in order to capture views from a multidisciplinary team. The main question posed to
the staff was “What strategies and techniques do you think could help improve burnout and mental
toughness in mental health staff”.
Findings –The study revealed that the top three ideas to take forward to help improve burnout and mental
toughness in mental health staff were improving the culture/organisation, improving staff wellbeing and
education. Additionally, staff were highly motivated and enthusiastic about engaging in discussion about
what could be done to improve their wellbeing and the importance of taking this forward.
Originality/value –This study is unique in involving mental health staff in discussing their ways of improving
their mental health. It is also unique as it has found the nine strategies to do this and these could be used in
targeted training for mental health staff.
Keywords Mental health, Training, Burnout, Intellectual disability, Mental toughness,Staff wellbeing
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Mental health services have recently s een an increase in demand for their service s
(Lasalvia et al., 2009). High-volume work demands and targets in these services make it a
pressurised environment to work in (Dowthwaite, 2016). Working in mental health is complex,
there are pathways for different stages of the individual’s condition and there is a wide range of
mental health conditions and different roles within the mental health services (National Health
service, 2016).
Mental health staff face challenges working in thesesettings, partly due to the complex nature of
the conditions they areworking with, including at times challengingbehaviour from service-users,
which can be stressful for the staff (Jenkins and Elliott, 2004). In addition, they also face
organisationalpressures such as low staffing levels,long shifts and more demands, with low levels
of support (Lasalviaet al., 2009). A combinationof these factors can belinked to mental health staff
experiencing burnout (Lasalvia et al., 2009).
Burnout in mental health staff
Burnout in mental health staff is acknowledged as a major problem, with as much as
67 per cent of mental health workers exp eriencing high le vels of burnout (Mor se et al., 2012).
Staff working in ment al health and intelle ctual disability s ervices are partic ularly vulnerabl e to
burnout due to facto rs such as low staffing levels, cli ent pressures and lack of support (J enkins
and Elliott, 2004) . The definition of bu rnout has been desc ribed in different w ays (Cherniss,
1980; Burke and Richardsen, 1993). However, the most favoured and accepted definition is Received 29 March 2017
Accepted 15 May 2017
Zoe Posner and Jessie
Janssen are both based at the
School of Health Sciences,
University of Central
Lancashire, Preston, UK.
Hazel Roddam is a Reader in
Allied Health Practice at the
School of Health Sciences,
University of Central
Lancashire, Preston, UK.
DOI 10.1108/JMHTEP-03-2017-0021 VOL. 12 NO. 4 2017, pp. 249-259, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1755-6228
j
THE JOURNAL OF MENTALHEALTH TRAINING, EDUCATION AND PRACTICE
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PAGE249
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