Sustainable staff well-being within older adult mental health
| Date | 08 June 2015 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/MHRJ-08-2014-0027 |
| Published date | 08 June 2015 |
| Pages | 92-104 |
| Author | Rosie Blagg,Stephanie Petty |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health |
Sustainable staff well-being within older
adult mental health
Rosie Blagg and Stephanie Petty
Rosie Blagg is Honorary
Assistant Psychologist and
Dr Stephanie Petty is Clinical
Psychologist, both at the
Specialist Older Adult Services,
The Retreat, York, UK.
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore how staff attend to their well-being when working in an
inpatient mental health setting with older adults with dementia and complex mental health needs; how staff
understand the link between their well-being and the well-being of patients.
Design/methodology/approach –A semi-structured group interview was held with 11 members of two
multidisciplinary teams. The discussion was audio-recorded and analysed using thematic analysis.
Findings –Staff reported managing their well-being by both connecting with and avoiding the difficult
emotions of the work. The team avoided the gravity of the work through humour, a task-focus, an absence of
thinking and the displacement of workplace frustrations onto an outgroup. Connecting with emotions was
done in tolerable ways: in contained reflective spaces, in the presence of supportive others, through genuine
connections with patients as people and when the organisation demonstrated care for the staff.
Practical implications –Avoidant strategies appeared to represent short-term ways of maintaining staff
well-being, while connecting with the gravity of the work appeared to represent what we hope is a more
sustainable approach to managing well-being. A crucial premise for staff well-being is teams embedded
within organisations that care for their employees.
Originality/value –Poor staff well-being can have serious consequences for an organisation, particularly in
the existentially challenging environment of dementia care. This study offers a unique opportunity to explore
staff well-being in a UK inpatient mental health setting with older adults with dementia and complex mental
health needs.
Keywords Well-being, Dementia, Staff, Qualitative
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Staff well-being is problematic within mental health care (Wood et al., 2011). Non-optimal staff
well-being ripples throughout an organisation, negatively impacting on the organisation,
individual staff members and patients. However, staff well-being is often overlooked. Well-being
is a subjective and nebulous concept, conceptualised on various dimensions. Individual studies
vary in how they measure well-being. Testad et al. (2010) measured health and well-being in care
staff using three scales to assess perceived stress, psychological distress and subjective health
complaints. Well-being can also be measured on a single scale such as the Oxford Happiness
Questionnaire (Hills and Argyle, 2002). In dementia care, Bramble et al. (2011) conceptualise staff
well-being as comprising levels of stress and job satisfaction, while te Boekhorst et al. (2008)
describe different levels of staff well-being as job satisfaction and burnout. Following these
authors we understand staff well-being broadly as experiencing job satisfaction and being
meaningfully engaged in clinical work, with the resilience to cope with the inherent uncertainties
and difficulties of the work.
Poor staff well-being can have serious consequences for an organisation. When working
with older adults, staff burnout, high turnover and recruitment and retention problems exist
Received 1 August 2014
Revised 21 October 2014
21 November 2014
27 January 2015
Accepted 31 January 2015
The authors would like to thank all
the staff members who
participated in the group interview.
Thanks also to Samantha Rankin
for support with the research
governance application, to
Carmel Joyce, Nicky Surgenor,
Michelle Potts and Olivia Walker for
help with recruiting participants,
and to Melanie Jordan, Bronwen
Gray, Lizzy Ferguson, Chris
Holman, members of the Research
Group and attendants at the
Retreat Clinical Development
Group, for comments and ideas.
The study was completed within
the remit of employment as a
Clinical Psychologist. No funding
to declare.
PAG E 92
j
MENTALHEALTH REVIEW JOURNAL
j
VOL. 20 NO. 2 2015, pp. 92-104, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1361-9322 DOI 10.1108/MHRJ-08-2014-0027
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