The Mental Wellbeing of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) Workers in England: A Cross-Sectional Descriptive Study Reporting Levels of Burnout, Wellbeing and Job Satisfaction

Abstract

In the UK, there has been a notable increase in referrals to specialist children’s mental health services. This, coupled with shortages of qualified staff, has raised concerns about the escalating occupational stress experienced by staff in this sector. In this brief report, we present cross-sectional quantitative data from 97 staff members working in one Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in the UK during spring 2023, reporting on their wellbeing, job satisfaction, and burnout. Our findings reveal that over a third of CAMHS staff experienced moderate or high levels of work-related burnout; 39% reported moderate or high levels of personal burnout, but levels of client-related burnout were much lower (13%). Both work- and client-related burnout showed a robust negative relationship with job satisfaction, with higher burnout predicting lower levels of job satisfaction. Only a small proportion of respondents reported high levels of wellbeing, with about a quarter experiencing levels of wellbeing that can be considered indicative of mild or clinical depressive symptoms. Whilst these results are from a small sample in one area of the UK, they present an important snapshot of CAMHS staff wellbeing and are discussed in the context of similar trends reported in the wider NHS sector.

Nature-based approaches: Facilitators and barriers to implementation in CAMHS

“…These analyses were conducted within a wider data analysis plan which sought to assess levels of staff burnout, well-being, and job satisfaction and how these are interrelated; and to explore whether they differ by demographic and work-related factors (i.e., sex, age, clinical vs non-clinical professional role, and working pattern). These ndings are reported elsewhere [10]. All analyses were conducted in R version 4.2.0 using psych package version 2.3.3.…”

“…The survey asked questions about attendance at recent away days and facilitator training, and staff experience and attitudes towards NBAs. The survey also used validated measures to assess nature connectedness, burnout and wellbeing, which are reported elsewhere [10]. The survey was open to all staff, regardless of their attendance at any training.…”

“…Research outside healthcare suggests nature contact boosts mental health, cognitive ability, and reduces stress and health complaints [7][8][9]. In the NHS, where services are under increasing stress [10], there has been a large-scale emphasis on staff wellbeing teams who promote work-life balance and health checks; while it is beyond their remit to in uence workload and capacity, advocating simple changes within the work environment could be valuable. Exposure, experience, and context can in uence individual state changes in nature connectedness and therefore, encouraging nature connectedness amongst employees could improve staff wellbeing and productivity and reduce sickness levels [11,12].…”