Mental health staff views on improving burnout and mental toughness

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.

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”.

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.

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.