Burnout syndrome among mental health workers in Turkey
Burnout is a syndrome largely experienced by workers in dense human contact. Even though DSM does not include burnout as a separate category of diagnosis, ICD marks burnout as a problem related to life-magament difficulty. This study takes an exploratory approach to burnout phenomenon among mental health workers in Turkey. The scope of study has been kept wide through including psychologists, psychotherapists, counselors, psychiatrists, social workers and volunteers, who are dealing with various problems in different settings like hospitals, private practices or other organizations in various regions of Turkey, both urban and rural.
Turkish adaptation of Maslach Burnout Inventory is employed as the measurement tool for burnout. Alongside with prevalence, two categories of variablesrelations with burnout are surveyed, namely personal and professonal factors. Among personal factors, age, sex, place of residence, personal trauma history and marital status; among professional factors, level of education, occupation, work setting, engagement in trauma work, types of disturbances, traumas and populations that are worked with, supervision, experience and hours that are spent with clients per week are inquired. Results indicate significant relations between burnout, and occupation, place of residence, work setting, personal trauma history, engagement in trauma work, trauma types that are worked with and supervision. On the other hand, no significant relationships between burnout, and level of education, marital status, hours spent with clients per week, disturbances and populations that are worked with, age, sex and experience are found. In the discussion, results are discussed within the framework of compassion satisfaction.
