June 15, 2023-June 15, 2024
CARES Award (Internal to UMB): www.umaryland.edu/cares
Background
The state of the behavioral health workforce has been building towards a crisis point for decades leading to a severe shortage of behavioral health providers. Insufficient providers are not the only issue facing the behavioral health workforce. In the public behavioral health system, working conditions are very stressful, creating a cycle of turnover that makes the shortage problem even worse. Related to the cycle of chronic turnover and a cause of attrition, burnout among healthcare providers in general, and behavioral health providers in particular, is a major concern which has only gotten worse since the COVID-19 pandemic. A longstanding body of research supports the idea that burnout and turnover have a detrimental effect on clinicians, agencies, and patients, but there is a relative dearth of research on interventions to address turnover and burnout in clinical practice settings. Research studies are needed that develop and test interventions to reduce turnover and reduce the risk of burnout.
Study
Investigators will conduct pilot exploratory analysis with the goal of developing intervention components to prevent burnout and increase retention among early career behavioral health professionals. The project will interview newly graduated social workers and nurses working in behavioral health, and then conduct interviews with clinical supervisors and program directors in these settings. In the interviews with new clinicians, the project will explore their personal strategies for preventing burnout, their future intentions with respect to leaving their jobs, and the support they are currently receiving at work. They will also be asked to reflect on and discuss various potential modalities for helping to offset burnout and promote retention including compensation, training, and clinical supervision. Using insights gathered from the new clinicians, interviews will be conducted with provider leadership. During these interviews, we will share information about main themes from the new clinicians, with an emphasis on gathering leaderships’ feedback about the feasibility and scalability of different potential interventions where they work.
Implications/Future Plans
Findings from this pilot study will be used to develop intervention strategies to promote retention and present burnout among behavioral health practitioners. The next step in this program of research will be to test intervention components with the goal of identification and implementation of evidence-based practices for retention in behavioral health practice.
For More Information
Contact the Principal Investigator for more information.
Paul Sacco, PhD, MSW,
Associate Professor
University of Maryland School of Social Work
psacco@ssw.umaryland.edu
410-706-8099