Spouses’ Experiences of Rehabilitees’ Burnout and Recovery

Individualizing the burnout problem: Health professionals’ discourses of burnout and recovery in the context of rehabilitation

“…An approach that emphasizes burned out people as self-responsible managers of their mental distress may indeed appear at first glance to be respectful of individual agency. In previous research on Finnish burnout rehabilitation individuals’ enhanced sense of self-responsibility has also been linked to the strengthening of personal agency as a desirable outcome of rehabilitation ( Salminen, 2020 ). As Bech Risor and Lillevoll (2021 : 3) point out, individuals whose distress does not meet the diagnostic criteria struggle with legitimacy of their illbeing, both in working life and in the health system, from which they hope to receive help.…”

“…We argue, however, that the major problem of individual-centered discourses around burnout is that they ignore the problems of working life, everyday stressors at work as well as social power structures and hierarchies behind the burnout syndrome. Moreover, there is research evidence suggesting that compared to person-directed interventions, hybrid type interventions with a combination of both person- and organization-directed approaches have longer-lasting positive effects in terms of alleviating burnout symptoms ( Ahola et al, 2017 ; Awa et al, 2010 ; Maslach, 2017 ; Salminen, 2020 ).…”