Person-job congruence, compassion and recovery attitude in Community Mental Health Teams

Abstract

Background

Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) staff are vulnerable to burnout and compassion fatigue, which has implications for service-user care and recovery outlook. Burnout itself is increased when professionals perceive there is low congruence between themselves and their job.

Aims

The aim of this study is to identify how person-job congruence is associated with compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction, and how these in turn relate to staff recovery attitudes.

Method

A cross-sectional survey of 132 CMHT staff, utilising the Areas of Worklife Scale, Professional Quality of Life Scale and Recovery Knowledge Inventory.

Results

Multiple regression analysis revealed negative associations between “Workload” congruence and Secondary Traumatic Stress (p = 0.001). Low congruence in “Workload” (p = <0.001) “Reward” (p = 0.005) and “Values” (p = 0.005) were associated with increased Burnout. “Workload” congruence was positively associated with Compassion Satisfaction (p = 0.041). Compassion Satisfaction and Compassion Fatigue were not significantly associated with recovery attitude.

Conclusions

Interventions to address Compassion Fatigue are indicated to target: workloads, rewards, and aligning organisational and personal values. Further research is needed to explore predictors of compassion satisfaction and recovery attitude.

Keywords:

• CMHT
• compassion satisfaction
• compassion fatigue
• recovery

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The research was funded by the University of Liverpool.