Australian Mental Health Social Workers’ Experiences of Burnout

Abstract

ABSTRACT Mental health practice is recognised as emotionally demanding and complex. Social workers and others working in this field of practice may be susceptible to stress and burnout. This study explored Australian social workers’ stories of burnout when working in the mental health sector. In the qualitative study described here, the method used was in-depth interviews to narratively understand and organise the experiences of 10 Australian mental health social workers who had a self-identified experience of burnout. Findings indicated that although there are individual and contextual aspects of burnout, mental health social workers would feel most supported by organisations implementing structured burnout prevention practices, including mandating supervision and regulating caseloads. These insights contribute to the profession’s understanding of burnout as experienced by Australian mental health social workers and may benefit practitioners and organisations to reduce the risk of burnout in future social work practice. IMPLICATIONS Mental health social work is emotionally demanding and social workers working in the sector may experience high levels of stress and burnout. Burnout is a stress-induced phenomenon that is multi-dimensional, yet many social workers are expected to manage this issue through individually structured practices such as self-care. Organisations need to take a stronger and more systemic approach to proactively prevent and respond to worker burnout in mental health work.