Staff wellbeing predicting positive attitudes towards mental health recovery

Abstract

Rationale As a result of recent changes in mental health ideology from illness-based models to consumer driven, person-centered recovery models, many organizations and mental health staff have been required to adopt new work practices and procedures. Evidence suggests, however, that this transition has been a more difficult process than anticipated and as a result, mental health consumers are still not receiving adequate services provision consistent with recovery ideology. Past research has indicated staff attitudes as a possible barrier to successful adoption of new practices and that one factor impacting upon these attitudes is staff wellbeing.Aims and objectives This research is an exploratory investigation aimed at determining if a relationship exists between various measures of wellbeing and staff attitudes to recovery and which of the wellbeing measures are most useful for predicting positive recovery attitudes among mental health staff.Method A total of one hundred and thirty service staff from four different mental health services completed six self-report measures of wellbeing and one of recovery attitudes. Cross-sectional correlation and regression analysis was used to explore the relationship between wellbeing and attitude.Results As predicted, results showed that intrinsic job satisfaction, psychological wellbeing and work hope were all positively related to recovery attitudes whilst burn out and intention to leave were both negatively related. Work hope and burnout measures together provided the most accurate prediction of recovery attitudes. Conclusion These findings indicate that addressing issues related to staff wellbeing will be important if present and future recovery oriented staff training is to be optimally transferred into practice.