I n t r o d u c t i o n S in ce the first discussions of this phe nomenon in professional journals (Freudenberger, 1974,1975), burnout in human services workers has received substantial attention in a great variety of fields (Kahili, 1988; Kilpatrick, 1989; Ursprung, 1986). Although there has been a dramatic increase in communitybased psychosocial rehabilitation ser vices for people with serious and persistent mental illnesses, few empiri cal studies on burnout have been conducted. To our knowledge, no ARTICLES 340This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.