Stress experiences of occupational therapists in mental health practice arenas: a review of the literature

Abstract

The experience of job stress and burnout in occupational therapy has received only scant attention in the literature, although occupational therapists (OTs) share a number of important characteristics with other health care professionals that leave them vulnerable to the experience of stress. In addition, this group has a number of unique personal and work-related characteristics that could serve to increase its risk profile. Little effort has been directed at delineating work-related stressors or experienced levels of stress within different practice arenas of occupational therapy, even though some specialisms (e.g. mental health, forensic psychiatry, learning disabilities or paediatrics) are likely to be more emotionally demanding than others. There are a number of indicators which confirm that job stress is an issue for OTs, although some of the empirical data suggests that, on average, this occupational group experience less burnout than other human service professionals.