Mental health care providers currently face a variety of challenges in their work-place setting and are at a high risk for experiencing burnout – negatively impacting professional and personal outcomes. Interventions to reduce burnout in mental health care professionals are needed. One promising intervention, entitled Burnout Reduction: Enhanced Awareness, Tools, Handouts, and Education (BREATHE), supports individual providers by focusing on building individual resilience and skills. Module 1 of this 3-part series focuses on understanding the concept of burnout and well-being at work while offering practices to reduce burnout and enhance well-being.
1. Understand the concept of burnout and well-being at work and identify the drivers in our own lives.
2. Review a framework for thinking about wellness at work.
3. Discuss several contemplative practices to reduce burnout and enhance well-being.
Michelle P. Salyers, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). She directs the ACT Center of Indiana, a collaboration of academic and community partners, including researchers, administrators, clinicians, consumers, and family members who share an interest in recovery-oriented, evidence-based practices. The overarching goal of her work is to help adults with severe mental illness live meaningful lives in the community. Her research addresses both consumers of mental health services and the providers of those services. She is increasingly targeting the interaction of consumers and providers, looking for the best way to support relationships that promote recovery and well-being. Her current work involves developing effective ways to reduce staff burnout and to increase shared decision-making in mental health care.
