Coping, mental health, and subjective well-being among mental health staff working in secure forensic psychiatric settings: Results from a workplace health assessment.

Abstract

Given raised rates of patient suicide and violence in secure psychiatric facilities, staff in such settings are arguably at increased risk for burnout and reduced mental health. The present paper responds to the recent UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) call to assess workforce well-being. This paper held the following aims: (1) to quantify existing levels of mental health (i.e., depression, anxiety, distress, and post-traumatic stress) and subjective well-being (i.e., job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and four domains of burnout), and (2) to evaluate Coping Self-Efficacy (CSE) and Need for Affect (NFA) as factors associated with staff mental health and subjective well-being. We conducted a voluntary crosssectional health needs assessment of forensic mental health staff (N=170) between 2017 and 2018 from one National Health Service (NHS) Trust. Descriptive findings suggest staff possessed non-clinical average ranges of mental health symptoms. Subjective well-being findings showed burnout was relatively low, whereas job and life satisfaction were modest. Regression models demonstrated that: (a) thought/emotion stopping beliefs were negatively associated with psychological exhaustion; (b) social support beliefs were positively associated with life satisfaction and job enthusiasm; (c) NFA Avoidance was linked with poor mental health and burnout, and; (d) NFA Approach was positively associated with two health subjective well-being indicators. Overall, assessment results suggest NHS forensic mental health staff reported relatively good health. Cognitive-and emotion-focused coping beliefs demonstrate promise as content for prevention programming. Using Emotional Labour Theory, we offer psychological services-based recommendations for future prevention programming and research.

Illness prevalence rate in Tibet, China: data from the 2018 National Health Service Survey

“…In different employment situations, unemployment and being laid off were risk factors for a two-week illness, which is similar to the results from the Fifth National Health Service Survey [12]. To a certain extent, an irregular daily life and realistic pressure are negative factors of illness [29]. As a special social group, school students are at an early life stage and have relatively low life pressure and regular living habits, and most of them are energetic because of their youth and have good physical immunity; thus, their possibility of experiencing a two-week illness was low.…”

Illness prevalence rate in Tibet, China: Data from the 2018 National Health Service Survey

“…In different employment situations, unemployment and being laid off were risk factors for two-week illness which is similar to the results from the Fifth National Health Service Survey [12]. To a certain extent, An irregular daily life and realistic pressure are negative factors of illness [28]. As a special social group, school students were at an early life stage, and have relatively low life pressure and regular living habits, and most of them are energetic because of their youth with good physical immunity, so the possibility of two-week illness was low.…”

An integrative review of nursing staff experiences in high secure forensic mental health settings: Implications for recruitment and retention strategies

“…(2016) measured the relationship between patient characteristics of age, length of stay, risk, psychopathy on EssenCES scores. Cramer et al (2020) used a battery of measures to quantify and measure the relationships between mental well‐being (including burnout and coping) in forensic staff, of whom 88.9% were nurses or nursing assistants. Reininghaus, Craig, Gournay, Hopkinson, and Carson (2007) measured the relationships between perceived stress, coping, self‐esteem, and mental health in nursing staff.…”

“…Reininghaus et al. (2007) and Cramer et al (2020) used measures of stress and coping in their surveys, alongside other measures of mental health. Scores on measures of mental ill health, including burnout, were low compared with samples of other nursing populations (Cramer et al, 2020).…”