Mental health, "burnout" and job satisfaction in a longitudinal study of mental health staff

Background: This study examines whether the adoption of a more community ba sed model in an inner city psychiatry service is accompanied by increasing "burnout", deteriorating mental health and decreasing job satisfaction amon gst staff. Method. Questionnaires were sent annually for 3 consecutive year s to all mental health staff working in three adult mental health sectors i n inner London. Main outcome measures were the 12-item General Health Quest ionnaire, Maslach Burnout Inventory and a general job satisfaction measure. Results: There was no significant change over time in the outcome measures , once confounding by job and demographic variables was examined. Being bas ed in the community was associated with higher GHQ-12 scores (P = 0.02) whe n compared to in-patient staff over the 3 years. Conclusions: These results suggested that working in the community may be more stressful than working in in-patient services. However, there was no evidence to suggest that lev els of stress are increasing over time, either in community-based or hospit al-based staff.