Mental health Essay

â€Å"Research suggests that burnout and low job satisfaction are significant problems among mental health workers and may be especially so among those working with clients with serious mental illness.†(Purdue) Many people suffer from mental illness and addiction, and many of these people end up in a community health center where social workers/case managers help them to cope with their issues and be the problem solvers for them. The ratio of patient to case worker is extremely off balanced and many case workers become overwhelmed and experience burn out. â€Å"Burnout is a state of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed and unable to meet constant demands. As the stress continues, you begin to lose the interest or motivation that led you to take on a certain role in the first place.†(helpguide) When a case worker experiences burnout they put their patients at risk because they are supposed to be the solid ground for the patient to stand on and if the case manager is not motivated to help anymore they will do the patient no good in helping them move forward. Burnout is a dangerous state of mind for a case worker to have since they are supposed to be responsible, motivated and in a positive state of mind to help others. When burnout is present there is a greater chance of a case being mishandled and that can cause many different problems, not just for the person being helped, but for the case worker and their facility. The signs of burnout come in many different forms, such as physical, emotional and behavioral. Physical signs of burnout are feeling tired and drained most of the time, headaches and muscle aches and feeling sick all of the time. Emotional signs of burnout are loss of motivation, sense of failure, feeling helpless, trapped and defeated, always having a negative attitude; feeling detached from the world and decreased sense of accomplishment. Behavioral signs of burnout are withdrawing from responsibilities, using food, drugs or alcohol to cope, isolating yourself from others, taking out frustrations on others, procrastinating getting things done, skipping work and neglecting other responsibilities. The signs of burnout are a very serious matter, especially to a caseworker who should be in a positive state of mind when helping others. If a caseworker is not working to the best of their abilities the outcome of an individual’s case may not turn out positively and they may suffer even more to have to go through the process more than once. It also makes the client not trust others, making it harder for the next person who may be the case manager who may be dedicated to the case, but be ‘punished’ for the mistakes made by a previous case worker. The client has to trust their caseworker in order for them to work together and successfully work through their problems, a case manager must be able to provide their full support and attention. In order to prevent burn out an individual needs a positive support system whenever they feel burned out or have an overload of stress that can cause an eventual burnout. An individual should always know their limits and know when enough is enough and not push themselves over the edge. There should be a shared responsibility amongst caregivers/case managers and the load of work should be rationed evenly, as not to overwhelm any particular person. Caregivers should be able to ask for help when they are in need, because they are always helping other people and can possibly forget to take care of themselves. It is important to know that in order to help others, you must first help yourself and take care of your mental and physical wellness to be at your best for other people. There are caregiver support groups available also, which can help emotionally because everyone is sharing their experiences and it can show you that there are others out there who feel the same way you do and are going through the same things. Support groups can also help individuals share their ‘tricks’ they’ve learned with coping with stress and maybe give information for other helpful outputs that are beneficial to use as a caregiver. Caregivers are the most important people in the community; they are selfless and help those in need, oftentimes putting themselves last. Unfortunately burn out is a common trend in the caregiver service because of all the effort put into each individual case, it can become extremely overwhelming to deal with. The turnover rate among social workers, caregivers and case managers is very high because of burn out. These jobs are very demanding and it takes a special kind of person to be able to cope with these duties and continue to help others without ‘losing themselves’ and suffering a burn out.