The Association of Self-care, Burnout and Secondary Traumatic Stress

Burnout and secondary traumatic stress are critical issues for those in the mental health profession with rates of burnout at round 60% (Chen et al., 2019; Kelly et al., 2022; Morse et al., 2012). Additionally, due to the nature of their work mental health professionals are at a greater risk of experiencing secondary traumatic stress (Canfield, 2005; Cook et al., 2021; Garcia et al., 2015; Kelly et al., 2022; Wardle & Mayorga, 2016). Both of these phenomena negatively impact the effectiveness and ability of mental health professionals. While self-care is often recommended as a means of prevention, the data to support that claim has been paltry up until now. Thus, a structural equation model was used to demonstrate the effect of self-care on burnout and secondary traumatic stress. A total of 1550 licensed mental health professionals participated in this study and the findings of this study that investigated the effect of self-care on burnout and secondary traumatic stress revealed significant results. When it came to the effect of self-care on burnout there was a significant negative relationship of -0.73 meaning that engaging in self-care led to a decrease in burnout. There was also a significant negative relationship of self-care between secondary traumatic stress at -0.37 meaning that as self-care increased secondary traumatic stress decreased. Furthermore, this study highlights the most beneficial areas of self-care for mental health professionals to implement and gives insight into how work setting influences the experience of these phenomena.