Abstract
Community Mental Health Teams (CMHTs) were formed to meet the needs of the severely and enduringly mentally ill as community care service providers. These teams consist of a number of different professional mental health workers whose task it is to provide a multidisciplinary approach to caring for mentally ill adults. The current available information suggests that CMHT members experience high levels of burnout. The purpose of this research was to investigate the psychological well being of CMHT workers by assessing levels of burnout, the dependent variable, and its relationship to a number of independent variables. Fifty-six members of eleven CMHTs returned a postal survey. Measures included The Maslach Burnout Inventory, The General Health Questionnaire 28, The Attributional Style Questionnaire and The Team Climate Inventory. A specific attributional style questionnaire for work related events was developed called the Community Mental Health Team Attributional Style Questionnaire. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) identifies three dimensions of burnout; Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalisation and a Lack of Personal Accomplishment. High levels of emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and a lack of personal accomplishment were identified in 60%, 29% and 18% respectively of respondents. Stepwise regressions revealed that a) Emotional exhaustion was associated with high levels of anxiety and insomnia and an explanatory style that negative work events will always be present, b) Depersonalisation was associated with high levels of anxiety and insomnia and an explanatory style that general negative events are due to self. Depersonalisation was also associated with the tendency to ascribe general positive events to self and a belief that positive events at work do not influence life in general, c) A lack of personal accomplishment was associated with high levels of social dysfunction. It was also associated with a general explanatory style that negative events affect life in general and that positive events are due to other people or circumstances.