Strategies to address burnout and trauma among psychiatric workers: Codeveloping recommendations and examining implementation priorities.

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Abstract
Mental health care providers face heightened risk for burnout, posttraumatic stress disorder, and other mental health problems due to workplace violence exposure and chronic stressors, exacerbated by postpandemic workforce challenges. Little evidence exists to guide interventions to reduce workplace trauma and burnout in psychiatric hospitals or to establish a baseline for evaluating implementation efforts. We consulted with 28 cross-sector stakeholders to share research and generate actions, then elicited further suggestions and feedback from 120 participants, producing 12 detailed recommended strategies to address workplace violence, burnout, and trauma. We then conducted a preimplementation survey of hospital leaders (N = 22) and union representatives (N = 18) at Canadian hospitals with inpatient mental health beds. Participants ranked their top priorities (i.e., most important, valuable, and urgent) and rated the perceived barriers and facilitators to implementing the recommended strategies at their hospital. Recommendations rated the highest priority concerned proactive strategies: preventing workplace critical events, creating psychologically healthy workplaces, and strengthening staff's ability to prevent and safely respond to critical events. However, hospitals were most likely to have engaged responses at the postexposure phase, including operational debriefing and trauma prevention for exposed staff. Capacity-building recommendations were the least likely to be undertaken. Current practices were related to ratings of familiarity and feasibility rather than agreement with the recommendation. Hospital and union representatives had similar priorities. These findings highlight the need for collaboration among hospital leadership, employee associations, government agencies, and other stakeholders to prevent workplace burnout and trauma. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Funding Information
  • Ontario Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development
  • WorkSafeBC