Welcome to week three of “The Behavioral Health Career Launchpad”. This week we will be discussing one of the biggest challenges facing those pursuing careers in the behavioral health space: burnout. 

Burnout has become quite the buzzword these days, but for a good reason. In the mental health field, over 50% of providers report experiencing symptoms of burnout (reference), a number that has steadily increased over the last couple of years. Burnout among those working in the behavioral health field leads to increased health concerns, job dissatisfaction, and increased turnover (reference). 

What is burnout?

Burnout, as defined by the World Health Organization, is characterized by persistent feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, cynicism related to one’s job, and decreased professional efficacy (reference). Other symptoms of burnout can include a sense of failure, procrastination, physical illness, feelings of helplessness, loss of motivation, and/or a withdrawal from relationships and responsibilities. 

Why are those in the behavioral health field experiencing burnout?

There are many reasons as to why those working in the behavioral health field may be experiencing burnout. However, three main reasons seem to be prevalent: 

1. Inadequate compensation: Providers of behavioral health care have traditionally been woefully undercompensated for their work (here). Undercompensating providers can lead them to feel like their work is undervalued and increased job dissatisfaction. 

2. Unmanageable workload: It is no secret that we have a mental healthcare professional shortage in the United States. 47% of Americans live in an area where there are not enough professionals to treat the demand for mental health services (reference). As such, providers often are pushed to take on more and more clients to meet demand, leading to untenable workloads. 

3. Emotional strain: Working with individuals with behavioral health concerns is an emotionally taxing job. Providers in the behavioral health field have near constant exposure to a patients’ distress or struggles, all while keeping a professional composure. Without appropriate outlets, providers may quickly burn out from the emotional tax required to perform their job.

How can employers prevent and treat burnout?

There are quite a few options as to how employers can prevent and treat burnout among their employees. Some options include completely redoing the payment system to compensate providers more (!!), but the following section focuses on actions employers can take today to prevent burnout. 

1. Have clinicians on your leadership team: If you are providing mental health services of any sort, you should have at least one clinician on your leadership team. A leader with a clinical background will be able to provide invaluable insights into the day-to-day work of clinicians and steer decisions towards what will be best for your team. 

2. Talk to your clinicians often: Along with having clinicians on your leadership team, as an employer of clinicians it is your job to talk to them often. Take the time to understand how they are really doing. What are the biggest pain points of their job? Ask how you can help.

3. Encourage time off – and to be clear, we mean actually encourage it. Too often we hear of companies promoting unlimited time off, just for that time off to be discouraged culturally (reference). Taking time off is essential for any employee, but critical for those in the emotionally demanding field of behavioral health. Be aware of what employees have not taken time off recently, and encourage them to do so. Where possible, offer to cover essential services so that the employee can stay completely offline.

4. Provide access to mental health resources: Therapists need therapists too. Providing access to mental health resources can take a variety of shapes and sizes, but employers should brainstorm how to provide some sort of mental health resources to their employees. Some options include access to teletherapy or peer-to-peer networks.

In a recent blog post by Mia Reine, she explained that “solving burnout requires changes at the organizational level. Organizations should actively engage with their teams to identify and implement systemic changes that are customized to the specific workplace culture and persistently evaluated and adjusted until they yield positive results.” The key part here is that interventions should be persistently evaluated until they yield positive results! 

You can watch the full webinar “Creative Ways to get Ahead of Workforce Burnout” here.

How can employees prevent and treat burnout?

The answer to this question is going to vary widely per person. Rather than provide a list of dos/donts (that may or may not work for you), we want to give you one suggestion that has worked in the past that can be adapted for your specific needs. 

A note from Alex: From personal experience, I know that the tricky thing about burnout is that it can sneak up on you. Day after day you may think “yes, I am feeling tired, but this will pass” until one day you realize the exhaustion has still not passed. I encourage all employees in demanding jobs to have a “mental health scorecard”. The items on the scorecard are things that contribute positively to your mental health (e.g., sleep, hobbies, social activities, etc.). Fill out your card quickly each day and compute your “score”. After two weeks of low scores, determine what intervention you will complete to avoid future burnout. 

Conclusion

If we want to continually increase the number of individuals that have access to high-quality mental health care, we have to start treating our provider burnout. There is no easy button solution to reducing burnout in the field, but with collaboration between employers and employees, we can make significant strides in the right direction.

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