A Preliminary Test of a Social Connectedness Burnout Intervention for Mexican Mental Health Professionals

• Published in: The Psychological record 2019-06, Vol.69 (2), p.267-276
• Main Authors: Reyes Ortega, Michel A., Kuczynski, Adam M., Kanter, Jonathan W., de Montis, Iván Arango, Santos, María Magdalena
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavioral Science and Psychology; Borderline personality disorder; Burnout; Connectedness; Corporate culture; Efficacy; Health Personnel; Intervention; Medical personnel; Mental health; Mental health professionals; Mental health services; Mental Health Workers; Modeling (Psychology); Organizational climate; Original Article; Personality Problems; Prevention programs; Psychiatry; Psychology; Psychotherapy; Public health; Quality of life; Quasi-experimental methods; Questionnaires; Resistance (Psychology); Retirement benefits; Social aspects; Social relations; Stress (Psychology); Therapists; Work environment; World health
• ISSN: 0033-2933; 2163-3452
• DOI: 10.1007/s40732-019-00338-5

Job burnout is a condition that interferes significantly with quality of life and is related to stressful working environments, organizational climate, and client outcomes. The introduction of burnout prevention and “Helping the Helper” programs may produce significant benefits with respect to this issue. In this study, we assessed a weekly online “Helping the Helper” intervention based on the behavioral principles of Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) to improve social relationships, reduce burnout, and improve organizational climate and quality of life in mental health professionals. Six therapists of the Borderline Personality Disorder Clinic of Mexico’s National Institute of Psychiatry participated in this study. Subjects answered three questionnaires (Maslach Burnout Inventory, Multidimensional Scale of Organizational Climate, and World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF) at seven time points throughout the duration of the study. The intervention was implemented between time points three and five. Robust Improvement Rate Difference (R-IRD) scores were computed for each subject to assess for the intervention’s efficacy. Results suggest preliminary support for the possibility of a “Helping the Helper” intervention based on FAP for reducing burnout and improving organizational climate among colleagues in a high-stress, public mental health setting.