Burnout in Human Services

Burnout in Human Services

In human services professionals are faced with emotional and at times difficult situations, coupled with long hours and a large client base; because of this Human Services professionals could experience burnout. Burnout is a physical or mental breakdown caused by stress on-the-job or by overextending oneself on-the-job. Burnout can be experienced either by physical exhaustion, mental exhaustion, or emotional distress ("Preventing Burnout in Human Services," 2000-2009).

Causes of Burnout

Individual causes of burnout can be caused the ways in which a person is capable of dealing with the day-to-day stress of his or her job, if a person cannot easily deal with large caseloads, or emotional situations on a day -to-day basis it could cause a professional to become worn-out, which would begin to harm job performance as well as the desire to put forth a high level of productivity that is required in most Human Services agencies ("Social Work Burnout", 2011). When considering an organization, its supervisors, and social support factors that contribute to burnouts there are numerous areas in which a human services professional can be led to burnout. Areas such as lack of support or improper support from supervisors or coworkers can cause a Human Services professionals to either do more than he or she has time for or to be mismanaged because of a lack of proper management that cause also cause stress and resentment, which could ultimately lead to burnout. Human Services professional faced with employers or managers who are unsupportive can also experience burnout that comes from stress and the feelings of being unappreciated or overworked.

Preventing Burnout

According to "Preventing Burnout in Human Services" (200-2009), there are several ways for an individual professional to prevent burnout; the first way is to avoid burnout is by taking a self-assessment. During the self-assessment an individual should take inventory of the aspects of his or her job that satisfy him or her the most and those who do not; because of this inventory the professional becomes aware of what portions of the job are more stressful and which areas could cause stress if changes happen (Developing a Supportive Environment).. While taking inventory the professional should find an alternate or a way to change the less satisfying areas of the job. Changes are possible adjusting scheduling, making more or less time for the areas more strenuous while taking the time to acknowledge that there will be aspects of the job considered less than desirable, if the professional is capable of doing this he or she can prepare better for the less desirable situations.

Along with mental preparedness to avoid burnout, there are other ways to prevent burnout. As an organization there should be a plan in place to ensure that employees are receiving the assistance he or she