Dialectical behavior therapy training to reduce clinical burnout in a public behavioral health system

Abstract

There is a risk of experiencing clinical burnout among therapists providing treatment to clients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), a complex, costly and difficult-to-treat psychiatric disorder. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based treatment of BPD that has been widely disseminated. There is only one published study that has examined pre and post scores of burnout among clinicians who receive training in DBT, and none that have taken place within a public behavioral health system in the United States where resources for community-based agencies are limited and demands are high. The current study examined the rates of burnout among therapists treating clients with BPD within a large, urban public behavioral health system. The study included a sample of nine clinicians and showed significantly decreased scores of burnout after participants attended a series of DBT trainings over a period of 13 months. There were several key limitations to internal validity including the lack of a control group. Similar evaluations of training outcomes are needed to address the widespread occurrence of burnout among community-based clinicians providing treatment to clients with BPD in order to enhance the quality of patient care.