Promoting Self-Care Towards Resiliency and Well-Being: Addressing Burnout Among Mental Health Workers

Purpose: To assess the burnout levels of mental health workers and to evaluate the effectiveness of promoting self-care practices in improving their well-being and resiliency. Background and Significance: Burnout is highly prevalent among mental health workers due to the nature of their work and the population of patients they serve. Turnover has been a significant problem within this specialty for decades. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the mental health workforce was projected to experience shortage by 2025. The pandemic will likely worsen this. Evidence from literature supports the effectiveness of promoting self-care towards the development of resiliency and well-being in addressing burnout among healthcare workers. Methods: The Maslach Burnout Inventory – Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) was used to assess the burnout levels of mental health workers in a psychiatric hospital in Arizona pre- and post-intervention. Educational modules were provided for each participant to review. They were asked to perform at least one self-care activity and to utilize the tools in the Provider Resilience application every week for four weeks. Results: Pre-intervention surveys indicated moderate levels of emotional exhaustion (m=20.71) and depersonalization (m=9.29) and high levels of personal accomplishment (m=28.71). Improvements were seen on emotional exhaustion (m=18.86), depersonalization (m=6.43), and personal accomplishment (m=33.86) were seen post-intervention. Conclusion: Although the results were not statistically significant due to small sample size, the improvements seen on two out of three components of burnout (emotional exhaustion and depersonalization) indicated that awareness of burnout levels and self-care practices contribute to improving the well-being of mental health workers.