Stress and Wellbeing during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Mixed-Methods Exploration of Frontline Homelessness Services Staff Experiences in Scotland

Abstract

Staff working in homelessness services often find the work rewarding yet challenging, and the sector experiences high levels of staff burnout and staff turnover. During the COVID-19 pandemic, staff working in these services faced particularly stressful working conditions. This study explored the experiences of stress and wellbeing among those working in frontline homelessness service roles during the early stages of the pandemic in Scotland. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 participants, 11 of whom completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Qualitative data were analysed using Framework Analysis in NVivo, informed by the Revised Transactional Model of occupational stress and coping. MBI data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The COVID-19 pandemic positively and negatively impacted participants’ lives and roles. Organisational culture acted as a magnifying glass for pre-pandemic practices: for some, the pandemic brought teams and staff closer together, creating a better working environment. For others, it led to fragmentation and frustration. Participants discussed coping strategies and recommendations for the future to protect staff wellbeing. Quantitative data suggested that participants were not experiencing burnout, although some were at heightened risk. Future research should explore the longer-term impact of the pandemic on homelessness service staff outcomes.

Implementing psychologically informed environments in homelessness services: a qualitative exploration of staff teams’ self-assessments

“…In line with wider research on health-care workers (Korunka et al , 2009), staff simultaneously report being exhausted, yet absorbed and motivated towards their work. Carver and colleagues (2022) identified that homelessness staff working through the COVID-19 pandemic reported being both exhausted, yet emotionally identifying with their work; when staff are faced with constrained resources and a complex system, their empathy and engagement with their work can act as a stressor in and of itself. Staff in homelessness services are more likely to experience anxiety and depression compared to the general population (Lemieux‐Cumberlege and Taylor, 2019).…”

Strength in the Face of Adversity: Perseverance and Resilience of Racialized Staff in the Homeless Sector During COVID-19

“…Additionally, they experience high levels of exposure to stressful and traumatic events in workplaces that do not always provide critical incident training (Ceannt et al, 2016), despite the documented benefits of providing such training (Hopper et al, 2010;Levesque et al, 2021). Negative repercussions of these impacts on staff often include high rates of sick leave and stress leave; the consequent lack of adequate staffing can result in the delivery of substandard or poor services (Campbell et al, 2022;Carver et al, 2022). This, in turn, negatively affects people experiencing homelessness and may lead to disengagement with homeless services, and prolonged homelessness (Kerman et al, 2021).…”

“…The COVID-19 pandemic may have exacerbated the mental health challenges faced by staff, creating additional challenges for homelessness-serving organizations (Carver et al, 2022). However, little is known about how intersectional factors such as gender and ethnicity, which have their own work-related stressors, create an additional impact on staff who belong to marginalized and racialized groups.…”

Gains and losses within the homeless service, supportive housing, and harm reduction sectors during the COVID ‐19 pandemic: A qualitative study of what matters to the workforce

“…Further, in a US study of emergency shelter providers in Texas, most were worried about being exposed to and contracting COVID‐19 at work, which had a negative impact on burnout levels (Aykanian, 2022 ). Factors that may have exacerbated the stress levels of service providers during the pandemic included changes to how supports were delivered, increased demand for services due to closure of other programmes, and a heightened need to effectively balance risks and benefits in work‐related decisions (Carver et al, 2022 ; Kaur et al, 2022 ; Parkes et al, 2021 ; Pixley et al, 2022 ). Yet, as organisations serving individuals experiencing homelessness were forced to adapt to the pandemic, this also yielded workplace innovations that had benefits for providers.…”