Burnout in the mental health workforce: a review

Abstract

There are enormous concerns regarding the recruitment, retention, training, and performance of the behavioral health workforce. Paramount among these concerns is turnover, which causes disruption in continuity of care, diminishes access to care while a position remains vacant, and poses financial hardship on the provider organization through costs related to recruitment, orientation, and training of a new hire. There is frequent mention of burnout within the literature and among behavioral health managers as a potential cause of turnover. However, there is no recent or comprehensive review of burnout that examines the evidence surrounding its validity, utility, and potential relationship to turnover. The purpose of this paper is to provide such a review by examining the construct of burnout, methodological and measurement issues, its prevalence in the mental health workforce, correlates of burnout, and interventions to decrease it. The implications for provider organizations and recommendations for future research are identified.