Mental Health Care Professionals... Need Advice
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No, I don't need professional help. I happen to work in the mental health field, and I was wondering what the rate of burn out is in this field? I've been at my position for 18 months, and the stress of the patients' behavior with little reward seen on my end is really getting to me.
I have tons of empathy and a firm understanding of the people we help treat, but it's too much at times.
If you're in the field, how do you cope with the stress of working with these types of people?
I wonder what the stats are on how long people stay in these situations. I've been thinking of getting some resumes out, but I feel conflicted.
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Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Briank
What level of mental health,
What level of mental health, and in what capacity?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: troubador
Secondary education- private
Secondary education- private school for emotionally disturbed.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Sideshow Bob
Best of luck to you Mr Fox.
Best of luck to you Mr Fox.
Personally, as an engineer w/Asperger's Syndrome, who actually got a little more "normal" over the decades via doing drugs & going to GD shows, & went on to do Project Engineering/ Project Management work (which is very people/collaboration-oriented), I have to say I experienced quite a lot of Burnout in dealing with the "Design Experts" in various esoteric fields who are all Fully Asperger Syndrome to the Extreme, & it was my job to Extract from them a Workable design that could actually be built by contractors in the Real World, within a Short time frame and within a Budget. Also trying to explain all this to the completely non-Asperger/non-Technical "Management, Owner and Operator" types who were Impatiently awaiting solutions to these problems & had a very Dim view of Engineers/Egg Heads.
God, Retirement is Awesome!
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Briank
I taught at a k-8 private
I taught at a k-8 private school for the emotionally disturbed and mentally ill.
If it’s not for you, cut and run. It’s a fucked up environment, no doubt, and WILL eat you alive. There’s no shame in it.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Briank
To answer your question: from
To answer your question: from my experience, the some people lasted a short time, which was all the better. A bunch lasted 2-5 years. They were the folks that I generally had the most professional respect for. They were highly skilled, learned a ton from the job and kids, and moved on. The people who lasted forever, beats me. Some of them were the most inept, mentally ill or addicted peopleI’ve ever worked with.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: troubador
Ha! That’s my read from my
Ha! That’s my read from my experience there over the past 18 months. I’ve seen a high turnover rate in my brief time from those who basically said f this.
I've been in the camp of soaking up everything I can from staff and students alike. But, yes, the lifers are some odd folk for sure.
Our school uses a relational approach which no college education prepares a teacher for. The students have no real consequences really no matter how ill the behavior. Sure, they are restrained, but then it’s just a talk afterwards where they’re just developing a plan in hopes the bad behaviors will become less severe.
For many, the school has helped them have a successful transition into life outside of high school, but there have been many cases where our program has failed.
We have a graduate from years ago, for instance, who went literally nuts at a coffee shop because he thought a guy bumped into him. Local news guy just happened to be there and filmed it all. Dude served jail time.
Mental illness is so tricky. We can help some “manage”, but the real world doesn't give a rat's ass about their problems.
We keep these kids in such a tight bubble.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Briank
We had way too many
We had way too many restraints, and the majority were really for compliance. The culture of violence wore on me. One lasted over 3 hours, required 6 people, and the student derived great pleasure out of it. Nobody should have put their hands on the kid in the first place. But, that’s how it went. That was the stuff that ate at me the most.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Lance minimum goad Newberry
Alost 20 years agoI worked
Alost 20 years ago I worked with ED teens. That lasted about three years, and I still cross paths with individual ED students in my work occasionally, but ultimately I very much disliked it as a full-time deal and made that known to my supervisors, so they moved me to a different population; people more like Sideshow Bob (and zoners in general) who are far more fun and fascinating.
With the ED students, as hard as I worked to set things up to succeed for them they worked harder at sabotaging those efforts, pretty much all the time.
IMO all they knew was failure and that was their comfort zone, so any time they found themselves outside of that (actually having some success) it would freak them out and they'd come up with ways to destroy it.
It wore me out.
Good luck and carry on.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Alias
My only word of advice is
My only word of advice is "boundaries"
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: FlutterBy
I lasted 6 months in the
I lasted 6 months in the field.
Best of luck; it ain't easy!
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: tracy
I worked for eight years with
I worked for eight years with intensive needs (EBD) students, and transitioned almost three years ago into community mental health as a case manager for kids who have a developmental disability (autism and/or intellectual disability.) I loved it til I didn't love it, then I knew it was time to move on.
How did/do I deal with the stress? Music, hiking, photography, and copious amounts of mj. Also a wickedly wicked sense of humor. You have to find humor in all of the crazy shit you deal with...or go crazy, yourself. And find coworkers to laugh with; it's hugely beneficial to your own mental health.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: fish
Did 20 years running group
Did 20 years running group homes for folks with a variety of developmental disabilities before I had to split. The frustration, imsfho, is in dealing with the system, as opposed to the folks you're providing services to. More than half your time is spent on paperwork to justify your funding
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: fish
Tracy's got good stress
Tracy's got good stress advice. Gardening is a great outlet if that's your thing
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Briank
Very true. Generally, it wasn
Very true. Generally, it wasn’t the students. They were who they were, warts and all. My students thrived, both academically and behaviorally. It was easy and celebrate the small victories, of which there were many, and minimize the negative crap. The hardest thing was a system that saw the students as hopeless, which led to a culture of restraints, and the adults who bought into it. I swear, student success was seen as a threat to the behaviorists, who drove the system.