Improving the wellbeing and resilience of health services staff via psychological skills training

Joep Van Agteren,Matthew Iasiello,Laura Lo

doi:10.1186/s13104-018-4034-x

Abstract

ObjectiveHealth services staff work in a stressful environment, which can negatively impact their mental health and wellbeing, and as a result can affect psychosocial and professional functioning. The implementation of resilience training aims to provide staff with basic psychological skills to improve mental health outcomes. The aim of the current pre-post study was to determine the short-term effects of group-based resilience training on clinical and non-clinical medical staff’s (n = 40) mental health outcomes.ResultsThe study showed statistically significant improvements in resilience (r = 0.51, p = 0.02) and wellbeing (d = 0.29, p = 0.001) from before to 1 month after the training. Participants with the lowest wellbeing and resilience scores at start of the training showed higher effect sizes compared to those with highest wellbeing and resilience scores, (r = 0.67 compared to r = − 0.36 for wellbeing scores and d = 0.92 compared to d = 0.24 for resilience scores); differences that point to particular impact of the training for people with the lowest baseline values. No significant changes in psychological distress as a result of depression, anxiety and stress were found. Brief implications of the findings for mental health and wellbeing interventions in the health services are discussed.

Highlights

Health services staff, both clinical and non-clinical, operate in high stress environments, which are often underresourced and under strain
Pro-actively addressing positive mental health, being defined as high levels of wellbeing and the ability to function fully [15, 16], by providing basic psychological skills training to health services staff, is an intervention health service organisations can implement as a primary prevention strategy for the general workforce staff [17]
The study found statistically significant improvements in wellbeing (p = 0.001) and resilience (p = 0.02), with small to moderate effect sizes found for the overall sample, see Table 2 for pre- and post-scores, and effect sizes

Summary

Results

The study found statistically significant improvements in wellbeing (p = 0.001) and resilience (p = 0.02), with small to moderate effect sizes found for the overall sample, see Table 2 for pre- and post-scores, and effect sizes. No significant improvements in mental distress due to mood problems, anxiety and stress were found. Eight out of 40 participants reached the threshold for mild mental distress due to mood problems, nine for anxiety problems, and eleven for stress. This was the case for depression and anxiety scores, with the majority of participants scoring a zero or two, the two lowest possible scores, for depression (68%) and anxiety (55%)

Introduction

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Discussion

Limitations