Factors associated with staff stress and work satisfaction in services for people with intellectual disability

Building psychological resilience in support staff caring for people with intellectual disabilities: pilot evaluation of an acceptance-based intervention

Support staff in intellectual disability services may experience significant work-related stress. The aim of the present study was to pilot an intervention called the Promotion of Acceptance in Carers and Teachers (PACT). Fourteen staff provided data on work stress and general wellbeing before and after attending PACT workshops over 1.5 days. A waiting list control subgroup of six staff also completed measures over a 6 week period. Support staff distress reduced significantly from pre-intervention to follow-up, whereas their reports of work-related stressors increased slightly. Psychological wellbeing and work stress did not change over time in the waiting list sample. Although the study is not tightly controlled, these pilot data suggest that the PACT may have a beneficial effect on staff wellbeing whilst not necessarily directly reducing experience of work stress. Thus, the PACT shows promise as a means of developing psychological resilience in support staff.

Stress and burnout amongst professional carers of people with intellectual disability: another health inequity

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

This paper summarizes trends in the research literature about stress and burnout in the lives of people who are the professional carers of people with intellectual disability. The principal time period considered was from 2004 to 2006.

RECENT FINDINGS

Studies reviewed here focus on several themes including inequities affecting professional carers of people with intellectual disability and the possible effects of some models of care on inequities. Implications for people with intellectual disability are also considered.

SUMMARY

The diaspora of people with intellectual disability into the community and their accompanying services found a whole new set of unpredicted and unprecedented challenges. Life in the community has rendered professional carers of people with intellectual disability more clearly vulnerable to stress and burnout for a variety of complex reasons, some identified and others as yet unrecognized. Lack of support and lack of role definition are particular problems. Presence of physical and mental health inequities result in major disparities in community care for people with intellectual disability.

Attitudes of direct care staff towards external professionals, team climate and psychological wellbeing: a pilot study

Relationships with external professionals may be an important factor in the psychological wellbeing of care staff. A questionnaire to measure team climate and staff wellbeing was developed, tested and revised. Seventy-two direct care staff completed the revised questionnaire, which had acceptable levels of internal consistency. Significant correlations were found between care staff attitudes towards professionals and levels of team climate and psychological wellbeing. The pattern of relationships was explored by path analysis. Further work is needed on the reliability and validity of the questionnaire. There is a clear association between attitudes to professionals and team climate and between some aspects of climate and psychological wellbeing. Professionals should adopt collaborative ways of working based on problem-solving approaches with staff teams, with the aim of delivering improved quality of care to residents.

Knowing you: the interpersonal perceptions of staff towards aggressive individuals with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities in situations of conflict

OBJECTIVES

Staff attributions concerning challenging behaviour have been found to play a role in determining their responses. The emphasis in the literature has been on staff beliefs about the challenging behaviour itself. However, staff are also likely to be responding to the person engaging in the behaviour. The aim of this study was to explore workers' perceptions of individuals who are frequently aggressive.

DESIGN AND METHODS

Thirty-six staff members working with individuals presenting problems of frequent aggression participated in this study. They were interviewed about an incident of aggression involving the person they worked with. The semi-structured interview, based on a Rational Emotive Therapy format, aimed to tap into the emotions aroused in the staff members and interpersonal appraisals that they made at the time of the incident. The responses were content analyzed.

RESULTS

The strength of the staff member's emotional reactions were noteworthy. Furthermore, approximately half of the staff members believed that the clients' aggression was directed at them personally. In turn, the majority of staff members described their clients in negative terms, and said that their first impulse had been to confront the clients.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that interpersonal perceptions may have a role in determining staff responses to individuals who behave aggressively. The clinical and theoretical implications of the findings were discussed, alongside directions for future research.

A focus group enquiry into stress experienced by staff working with people with challenging behaviours

A focus group is a group of people with a shared interest who meet to discuss a particular topic and generate information and opinion. Initially developed for use in market research, focus groups have been widely used in research and are often used in health and social care research. There is an increasing use of focus groups within learning disability settings both with staff and with service users. In this study a series of explorative focus groups gathered information from community staff regarding their experiences of stress when working with people with learning disabilities and challenging behaviours.

Self-reported emotional intelligence, burnout and engagement among staff in services for people with intellectual disabilities

This study examined the relationship among dimensions of self-reported Emotional Intelligence, Engagement and Burnout, using the Trait Meta-Mood Scale, Maslach Burnout Inventory and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale in a sample of Spanish professionals who work at institutions for people with intellectual disabilities. The results showed that Emotional Clarity was significantly associated with Personal Accomplishment (r=.25) and Dedication (r=.25). Further, Repair to moods was significantly correlated with all Engagement dimensions (.20 Vigor, .30 Dedication, .36 Absorption) and with Personal Accomplishment (.31). These findings extend previous research with college students in which Clarity and Repair to moods subscales were relevant predictors of well-being indexes and interpersonal functioning and suggest that the Trait Meta-Mood Scale subscales also show significant relationships with emotional functioning and work-related variables in a professional sample.

Transfer of facility clients to inpatient psychiatry: eight criteria to consider

The transfer of residential clients with mental retardation to inpatient psychiatric care units (IPUs) presents several areas in which clinical and administrative incidents can occur. Incident review management can be applied as an effective administrative tool to improve the transfer of such clients by considering the needs of clients in the context of their caregivers and the goals of the IPU. This article introduces eight criteria to facilitate and evaluate the transfer of such clients and help reduce the rate of incidents.

Hiring and retaining direct-care staff: after fifty years of research, what do we know?

Recruiting and retaining direct-care staff has long been a challenge for administrators of programs that serve persons with disabilities. A literature review revealed that beginning in 1950, researchers set out to develop a paper-and-pencil test that would identify good employees. Regardless of how they defined good, employers were unable to identify tests that selected promising job applicants. Efforts to develop research-based selection tools decreased in the early 1970s with the transition from state institutions to community programs. However, the growth of community programs did not mitigate the turnover problem, and the need remains for a reliable hiring tool. Whereas recent researchers have identified practices that can reduce turnover, these practices should be more widely implemented and their efficacy examined.

Factors associated with intended staff turnover and job search behaviour in services for people with intellectual disability

Staff turnover is a major problem in services for people with intellectual disability (ID). Therefore, understanding the reasons for staff turnover is vital for organizations seeking to improve their performance. The present study investigates the factors directly and indirectly associated with an intention to leave an organization and actual job search behaviour amongst staff in services for people with ID. As part of a large-scale survey of staff in services for people with ID, information was collected from 450 staff concerning intended turnover, job search behaviour and a wide range of factors potentially associated with these outcomes. Path analyses revealed that work satisfaction, job strain, younger staff age and easier subjective labour conditions were directly associated with intended turnover. The same factors, with the exception of younger staff age, were also directly associated with job search behaviour. Factors indirectly associated with these outcomes included wishful thinking, alienative commitment to the organization, lack of staff support, role ambiguity, working longer contracted hours, having a low-status job, a lack of influence over decisions at work and less orientation to working in community settings with people with ID. The models of staff turnover empirically derived in the present study confirm and extend previous research in this area. The implications for organizations are discussed.