Preliminary evaluation of behavior technician burnout when working with boarded and traditional psychiatric inpatients diagnosed with developmental disabilities

Problem

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a youth mental health crisis, with research demonstrating an increased prevalence of depression, anxiety, and disruptive behavior in youth compared to pre-pandemic years. Consequently, the insurgence of emergency psychiatric evaluations has increased the demands for extended inpatient stay (or patient boarding) at various licensed treatment facilities. Questions remain about the extent of burnout being experienced by behavior technicians who are caring for these patients.

Methods

The Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure was used to evaluate symptoms of burnout of behavior technicians practicing at a specialized psychiatric inpatient unit. Comparisons were made for instances of caring for boarded (meeting criteria for discharge but unable to be discharged due to disposition) and traditional patients (short-term treatment).

Findings

Behavior technicians caring for boarded patients reported significantly higher scores in overall stress, physical exhaustion, cognitive fatigue, and emotional exhaustion than those managing patients getting traditional care.

Conclusions

Extensive burnout can have adverse impacts at both the personal level (staff well-being, individual staff–patient interactions) and clinic level (daily operations and service, general quality of care). Efforts need to be made to address this issue to prevent staff turnover.