STRESS EXPERIENCES OF OCCUPATIONAL THERAPISTS IN MENTAL-HEALTH PRACTICE ARENAS - A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

The experience of job stress and burnout in occupational therapy has r eceived only scant attention in the literature, although occupational therapists (OTs) share a number of important characteristics with othe r health care professionals that leave them vulnerable to the experien ce of stress. In addition, this group has a number of unique personal and work-related characteristics that could serve to increase its risk profile. Little effort has been directed at delineating work-related stressors or experienced levels of stress within different practice ar enas of occupational therapy, even though some specialisms (e.g. menta l health, forensic psychiatry, learning disabilities or paediatrics) a re likely to be more emotionally demanding than others. There are a nu mber of indicators which confirm that job stress is an issue for OTs, although some of the empirical data suggests that, on average, this oc cupational group experience less burnout than other human service prof essionals.