Burnout in mental health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mentalexhaustion that is induced by states of prolonged andintense stress. It is a significant occupational problemamong mental health providers and is heightened especiallyduring the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Multiplepsychological and occupational risk factors cause emotionaland mental exhaustion, often leading to burnout. This minireviewaims to synthesize evidence on burnout amongmental health professionals and associated risk factors. Atargeted literature search was carried out from PubMed,PsychINFO and google scholar to retrieve relevantliterature. A review revealed a high prevalence of burn-out,ranging from 21 to 67% among mental health professionals.Long working hours, compassionate fatigue, vicarioustrauma, distress, depersonalization, constant worry relatedto personal well-being and those of significant others, andlack of psychosocial support emerged as associated riskfactors for burnout. Based on the evidence, we propose astrategic framework to prevent and manage burnouteffectively.