STRESS IN COMMUNITY CARE TEAMS - WILL IT AFFECT THE SUSTAINABILITY OFCOMMUNITY CARE

The study investigated whether community care is sustainable by examin ing the levels of stress and burnout that affect community mental heal th staff. Six teams from around Great Britain were chosen to take part , representing a number of different facets of care: the type of commu nity model, whether it uas in an inner city or suburban area and wheth er the team had been part of a scientific evaluation of care, in which case it may have contained more experienced and more highly trained s taff. The results indicated that community care staff experienced high levels of burnout as a result of the work stressors. These levels wer e higher than those found in any published study of health professiona ls within hospitals, but are similar to those found in community teams recently. There was no evidence that any particular model of communit y care produced less burnout, but working in an inner city did seem to produce the highest levels. There did seem to be some benefit from a moderate staff turnover within teams. These results mirror those of ot her recent studies. Models of community care can only be sustained by reducing their toxicity on the staff who have to make them work. There fore. levels of stress and burnout should be included in any evaluatio n of the cost-effectiveness of service models. The alleviation of thes e high levels through individual and organisational interventions shou ld now be a high priority.