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For those who are training the next generation of psychologists, it’s imperative to teach them to use the very best assessment instruments on the market. By providing your students with training on valid, reliable, and fully standardized instruments, you are helping to prepare them to enter the field with the skills they need to provide the highest standard of care to their own clients as well as put them on the path to conduct impactful research.

It’s not an easy job, but PAR is here to help!

Join the University Partnership Program (UPP)

The UPP is a concierge service that offers dedicated assistance to you and your students as they pursue advanced degrees. The entire program was developed to help you save time and energy so you can focus on what’s important—your students. Our UPP staff can provide you with the information you need to help you decide which tests best fit into your syllabus. In addition to offering a single point of contact for all your services, the UPP can provide a variety of training resources that can be integrated into your courses.

Get free materials and discounts

UPP members receive three free PAR test kits of your choice. Plus, you’ll get a 40% discount on products used for training and research. In addition, graduate students using PAR products for their research can take advantage of a 40% discount, too!

Learn more about the University Partnership Program and get started on your 2023–2024 syllabus now!

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May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Mental health providers play a critical role in promoting awareness and working to improve the lives of others. Yet, compassion fatigue and burnout are very real issues for those in the field. Last week, the PAR blog explored the state of burnout among mental health professionals. This week, we look at the signs of burnout and provide solutions for self-care.

Mental health providers continue to face a workforce shortage and ongoing burnout risks. Organizations and individuals need to prioritize and implement strategies to prevent and reduce burnout.

Mental health professionals were understaffed and facing a mental health crisis before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which only exacerbated the demands on a healthcare system already stretched beyond its breaking point.

According to the 2023 Mental Health America report, nationally, there are 350 patients to every mental health provider. However, the ratio widely varies from state to state; for example, the Massachusetts patient-to-provider ratio is 140:1, and in Alabama, it is 850:1.

The American Psychological Association conducted a survey in 2022 that found that more people required treatment for anxiety or depression than there were mental health professionals available to provide it. According to APA, 6 out of 10 practitioners claimed they had no opening to take on new cases, 46% said they couldn’t handle the demand, and 72% said their patient waitlists had only grown since the onset of the pandemic.

Seeing the demand and shortage of mental health professionals highlights just one pain point of many that mental health professionals contend with daily. Many mental health professionals are so passionate about attempting to meet the needs of their patients that they may sacrifice their own physical, mental, and emotional health and well-being. Yet, even with this devotion, they realize that it still isn’t enough to be able to help everyone who needs help. It isn’t difficult to see why 45% psychologists reported feeling burned out in 2022.

Mental health professionals and organizations should not assume that their education, training, and experience make them immune from experiencing compassion fatigue and burnout. In fact, those in the mental health field need to be vigilant and watch for the signs that they themselves or others they work with may be experiencing burnout.

Signs of burnout

Three of the most common signs of burnout include:

Exhaustion: Individuals often feel emotionally exhausted or drained, unable to cope, and have low moods and energy. They may also experience physical symptoms such as gastrointestinal problems.

Loss of interest in work-related activities: Individuals often feel increasingly frustrated and stressed by their jobs. They may experience growing cynicism about their work environment or colleagues and emotionally withdraw and feel numb regarding their work.

Decreased effectiveness or performance: Burnout affects daily tasks at work or home. Individuals experiencing burnout may be pessimistic, have difficulty concentrating, lack creativity, and lack energy and enthusiasm.

Individuals, organizations, and the media have helped spread the word about burnout in healthcare, but that isn’t enough to prevent it from continuing. Organizations need to work to prevent and reduce burnout among mental healthcare staff.

Strategies to combat burnout

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) argues that organization-level interventions should target burnout using a “whole-organization approach” due to the complex nature of burnout with many root causes and drivers.

According to SAMHSA, there are six areas that organizations need to address through improvement strategies to work towards preventing and reducing burnout among mental health workers. These six areas are:

  • Workload
  • Control
  • Reward
  • Community
  • Fairness
  • Values

SAMHSA outlines several strategies that can aid organizations in combatting and addressing burnout, such as:

  • Building a planning and implementation task force
  • Conducting a needs assessment
  • Identifying available resources and strategies for implementation
  • Sustainability planning

Practicing self-care

Although mental health professionals counsel others on the importance of self-compassion, it doesn’t mean they may not neglect its practice when it comes to themselves.

Self-care can help reduce stress, compassion fatigue, and other factors leading to burnout. Building the practice of self-care doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You can gradually add in one or several of the following:

Practice self-compassion: Self-compassion may work as a protective factor against exposure to secondary traumatic stress and burnout. Individuals need to see themselves as more than their job and know they are also due kindness and understanding.

Eat a balanced diet: Workloads may be excessive, and it may be tempting to work through lunch to squeeze in another client, a meeting, or other work, but don’t do it! It is important to take a break to eat nutrient-dense foods to keep your energy levels up and to help combat daily stress.

Get enough sleep: It is important to prioritize getting enough sleep. The CDC reports that adults need at least 7 hours of sleep. Studies have shown that sacrificing sleep can lead to anxiety and stress and how stressful events are perceived.

Exercise: Even taking a brisk walk can help remove you from your work and create a much-needed break, which helps to counter chronic stress and boost mood. Aerobic activity can also contribute to feeling better and increase endorphins in the body.

Reach out: If you are experiencing burnout, contact your supervisor or human resources about your hours or workload. If you are a solo practitioner, take some time to decide what boundaries you may be able to create to allow yourself a break.

Use time off: Vacations and breaks from work help prevent burnout.

Practice stress reduction activities: Yoga, meditation, deep breathing can provide short, much-needed breaks in a busy day.

Socialize with colleagues: Taking time out to connect with peers can help with the feeling of connectedness and reduce emotional exhaustion.

 

Mental health professionals must take steps to prioritize your own health and well-being. This will not only help to prevent burnout, it means you will be your most effective self and equipped to provide your clients and students with the quality care they need.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Mental health providers play a critical role in promoting awareness and working to improve the lives of others. Yet, compassion fatigue and burnout are very real issues for those in the field. For the next two weeks, the PAR blog will explore these issues within the mental health community and provide guidance on how those in the mental health field can prioritize self-care to protect their own mental health needs.

Mental health providers with prolonged or cumulative exposure to compassion stress may be vulnerable to burnout if early steps to counteract excessive empathetic involvement are not taken.

A major part of a mental health professional’s job is the ability to empathize with clients. Developing a successful therapeutic alliance leads to better outcomes and correlates with the capacity to identify, comprehend, and share an individual's feelings, thoughts, and experiences. However, prolonged exposure to distressing information can negatively affect a mental health professional and is a risk factor for secondary traumatic stress.

Studies have shown that health professionals have moderate to high levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress, but few present the prevalence of compassion fatigue and burnout found among mental health professionals.

Past studies have reported that people who work in helping professions have prevalence rates of compassion fatigue ranging from 7.3% to 40% and estimate that 21% to 61% of mental health practitioners experience signs of burnout.

According to an APA survey, the number of psychologists who said they could not keep up with patient demand increased from 30% in 2020 to 41% in 2021 to 46% in 2022. Similar amounts were recorded in 2020 (41%) and 2021 (48%), with nearly half (45%) of respondents in 2022 reporting feeling burned out.

Compassion stress

Secondary traumatic stress (compassion stress) negatively impacts mental health and can lead to psychological issues such as strained relationships, insomnia, poor sleep hygiene, severe depressive disorder, and compassion fatigue. Mental health providers with prolonged or cumulative exposure to compassion stress may be vulnerable to burnout if early steps to counteract excessive empathetic involvement are not taken.

Compassion fatigue

Compassion fatigue is caused by extended exposure to traumatized individuals. Mental health providers belong to a profession that demands constant empathy. While empathy is essential to your work, persistent and excessive demands for empathy can become emotionally exhausting and depleting without adequate time to recharge.

Signs and symptoms of compassion fatigue

Compassion fatigue stems from exposure to vicarious trauma and can affect people differently, but common signs to watch for include the following:

•            Chronic emotional and physical exhaustion

•            Anger or irritability

•            Headaches

•            Weight loss

•            Increased anxiety or irrational fears

•            Issues with intimacy

•            Decreased sympathy and/or empathy toward patients or coworkers

•            Dread in working with certain patients

•            Negative feelings separate from the work environment about work, life, or others

•            Negative coping behaviors, like alcohol and drug use

•            Increased absenteeism

•            Feelings of inequity and pessimism

•            Self-contempt

•            Low job satisfaction

Sometimes compassion fatigue and burnout are used interchangeably. There is a distinction. The onset of compassion fatigue is more abrupt, whereas burnout develops gradually over time. 

Burnout

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines burnout as a “syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been fully managed.” The WHO's definition of burnout distinguishes that “burnout refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.”

Symptoms of burnout

There are three key signs of burnout, which include:

•            Exhaustion: Individuals often feel emotionally exhausted or drained, unable to cope, and have low moods and energy. They may also experience physical symptoms such as GI problems.

•            Loss of interest in work-related activities: Individuals often feel increasingly frustrated and stressed by their jobs. They may experience growing cynicism about their work environment or colleagues and emotionally withdraw and feel numb regarding their work.

•            Decreased effectiveness or performance: Burnout affects daily tasks at work or home, and individuals are often very pessimistic, have difficulty concentrating, lack creativity, and lack energy and enthusiasm.

Factors that may lead to  burnout

Mental health professionals work with patients with mild to severe depression, anxiety, trauma, abuse, neglect, addiction, and other mental health illnesses, all of which can take an emotional, mental, and psychological toll on providers. Aside from the psychosocial issues, Patel and colleagues divide the contributing factors for provider burnout into workplace, organizational, and personal characteristics.

Workplace factors

There are many factors related to the workplace, such as excessive workloads, increased stress levels in overworked providers, the need to keep meticulous records, and time-consuming clerical duties. One national survey found that each hour spent interacting with patients added 1-2 hours of additional work with no additional compensation. Long work hours, lack of downtime at night or during the weekend, and the need to bring work home instead of taking time for themselves are also factors in burnout.

Organizational factors

Organizational factors include negative leadership behaviors, little to no reward or room for advancement, poor social support, and lack of interpersonal collaboration.

Personal characteristics

Personal characteristics include self-criticism, unhealthy coping strategies, perfectionism, poor work-life balance, poor sleep habits or lack of sleep, and inadequate support systems outside of work may also contribute to burnout. Studies have also shown that new and younger health providers have twice as much stress as older colleagues. Age and gender may impact levels of burnout, and studies have shown that younger workers and women may be at higher risk for burnout.

The impact of burnout

There are many downstream effects that burnout causes, such as:

•            Providers are at increased risk for developing cardiovascular disease, depression, or substance dependence.

•            Providers who lose their empathy could invite secondary harm to patients.

•            Increased healthcare costs are more common when providers suffer from burnout.

•            Compassion fatigue may lead to decreased retention and increased turnover and may lead some mental health professionals to leave the field.

Though empathy is the cornerstone of a strong connection and ability to treat and improve the mental health of their patients, mental health professionals must remember to prioritize their own physical and mental health. For health professionals to give their patients the best care possible and enhance client's quality of life, taking time off from work is essential to unplug, decompress, and practice self-care.

Come back next week to learn self-care tips meant specifically for those in the mental health field.

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This past weekend, PAR staff celebrated the 45th anniversary of the founding of this company. In honor of our anniversary, we thought we would share some fun facts about PAR.

  • It all started on a table—Bob and Cathy Smith began PAR on wooden table in their home in 1978. That table now holds a special place of honor in the PAR offices.
  • PAR employees are active in supporting our community organizations. We currently donate time and financial support to more than 70 charitable organizations each year.
  • Our Distribution Center ships orders with an incredible 99.99% accuracy rate—and it’s even more unbelievable because orders are shipped the day they are placed.
  • PAR is proud to have a staff that is 60% women.
  • Each year, PAR participates in a companywide fundraiser for United Way. We had 100% staff participation this year and raised $113,278 in staff contributions for this worthy organization.
  • Each week, a rotating group of PAR employees take part in a Meals on Wheels route, delivering fresh, nutritious meals to homebound individuals in our community.
  • We always say, “Customer service is our most important product,” and that’s not just an empty slogan. Our Customer Support team has more than 130 years of combined PAR experience and go through intensive training so they can be sure you are completely satisfied when you call. Also, all calls are answered by a live person—no automated messages!

These are just a few of the things we are proudest of as we look back on our 45-year history. As we look to the future, we hope to continue creating connections and changing lives with the work we do here at PAR.

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Each May, Mental Health Awareness Month seeks to raise awareness about the importance of mental health and reduce the stigma surrounding mental health disorders. Throughout the year, but especially in May, mental health providers play a crucial role in promoting awareness and taking action to improve the mental health of our communities.

What is Mental Health Awareness Month?

Mental Health Awareness Month began in the United States in 1949 as Mental Health Week. It was expanded to a month-long observance in 1980. The goal of Mental Health Awareness Month is to raise awareness about mental health and wellness, reduce the stigma surrounding mental health conditions, and promote greater access to mental health services and resources.

Why is Mental Health Awareness Month important?

In the U.S., more than 1 in 5 adults are living with a mental illness. Yet despite the prevalence of mental illness, stigma and discrimination surrounding mental health are significant barriers to treatment and recovery. Mental health and physical health are equal components to a healthy lifestyle, but many individuals fail to receive the support and care they need.

Mental Health Awareness Month provides an opportunity to break down these barriers and raise awareness about the importance of mental health. By promoting understanding and acceptance, we can encourage individuals to seek help, normalize the conversation around mental health, and improve access to mental health services and resources.

What can mental health professionals do to get involved?

As mental health professionals, we have a critical role to play in promoting mental health awareness and reducing stigma. Here are some ways we can get involved:

Raise awareness: Use your platform and expertise to educate others about mental health and wellness. Share information about Mental Health Awareness Month on social media and within your professional networks. Write blog posts, create infographics, and share resources that promote mental health awareness.

Engage with your community: Connect with local organizations and community groups to promote mental health awareness. Offer to speak at events or host workshops on mental health and wellness. Collaborate with other mental health professionals and organizations to create events and initiatives that promote mental health awareness and reduce stigma.

Advocate for policy change: Mental health professionals can also get involved in advocacy efforts to improve mental health policies and access to care. Contact your elected officials to express your support for mental health legislation and advocate for increased funding for mental health services and research.

Practice self-care: Mental health professionals also need to take care of their own mental health and well-being. Practicing self-care is essential to preventing burnout and maintaining mental health. Take breaks when needed, engage in regular exercise and meditation, and seek support.

No matter how you choose to get involved, Mental Health Awareness Month provides an important opportunity for mental health professionals to promote awareness and reduce stigma surrounding mental health, advocating for policy change, and providing direct services and support.

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