Burnout and job satisfaction in mental health professionals : a comparison of community organisations and hospital-affiliated staff working in intense follow-up teams of severely mentally ill individuals

Although much of the research on burnout has focused on the human service professions, there have been few studies investigating those working in the field of mental health, and even fewer looking specifically at community follow-up teams of the severely mentally ill. Two types of follow-up teams, hospital affiliated and community organisations, were compared in our study for levels of burnout and job satisfaction. As well, predictor variables such as stressors (daily hassles), work environment perceptions, caseload characteristics and employee characteristics were included to examine whether they explain the variance of burnout and job satisfaction. 25 staff members from four community follow-up teams completed questionnaires. Significant differences were found between teams on levels of burnout and job satisfaction. Work pressure was demonstrated as a significant predictor of burnout. There was a strong tendency for work experience to predict job satisfaction