Comparative Study of Burnout Rate of Psychiatric Social Workers with Other Areas of Social Work Practice in Tehran

Introduction: Psychiatric social work is one of the most important areas in which social workers as a member of the treatment team provide specialized services in providing a supportive environment for people with mental disorders and their families to meet their needs and return to society. Because one of the factors influencing the quality of social services provided to social work target groups is burnout, this study compares the rate of burnout between psychiatric social work and other areas of social work. Methods: The statistical population was all social workers working in four areas of social harm, justice, health, and treatment, including general and psychiatric hospitals in Tehran, whose number was eight hundred and the sample was three hundred nineteen people. The research method was descriptive-comparative and the data collection tool was Geldard's standard burnout questionnaire. To analyze the findings, descriptive and inferential statistics (F-variance) were used through SPSS software. Results: The rate of burnout among psychiatric social workers with an average score of one hundred one and nine-tenths was higher than the three areas of social harm, justice, and public health with averages of eighty-eight and thirty-four hundredths, eighty-five and ninety-three hundredths, and eighty-eight and twenty-three hundredths, respectively, and this difference was significant. On the other hand, among the three dimensions of burnout among psychiatric social workers, the atmosphere in the workplace had the highest score, followed by mental fatigue, and workload respectively. Conclusions: Considering the results of this study and the high rate of burnout in the field of psychiatric social work and its effects on personal and professional life and especially the provision of social services to target groups, the need for special attention and care by relevant organizations and the adoption of supportive policies is obvious. In this regard, it is one of the most important issues that should be considered by health policymakers.