Potential agency and supervisor solutions to address burnout: Insights from clinicians in community mental health agencies across Washington State

AI Summary

Implement regular supervision, morale and team-building, and flexible work arrangements, which are top-endorsed and commonly implemented to reduce clinician burnout.
Prioritise manageable caseloads, a highly endorsed solution that remains under-implemented across many community mental health agencies.
Adopt low-cost supervisor practices such as brief check-ins, engaged leadership, and encouragement to take breaks and practice self-care.

AI Summary

This mixed methods study gathered perspectives from 141 CMH clinicians participating in a state-funded evidence-based treatment training initiative called cognitive behavioral therapy plus, on strategies for addressing clinician burnout.

Using a modified free-list technique in an online survey, participants suggested agency or supervisor solutions they felt would be helpful to reduce their burnout and answered a follow-up question indicating whether each solution was currently being implemented by their agency/supervisor.

Thirty-three distinct burnout strategies spanning six domains-client-related, structural support, teams, emotional support, other supervisor support, and self-care-emerged through qualitative content analysis.

Basic summary

Psychol Serv. 2026 Jun 25. doi: 10.1037/ser0001062. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Community mental health (CMH) clinicians are at high risk of developing burnout, which can lead to poor clinician well-being, worse quality patient-care, and employee turnover. However, little is known about strategies CMH agencies and supervisors are currently implementing or could implement, to reduce clinician burnout. This mixed methods study gathered perspectives from 141 CMH clinicians participating in a state-funded evidence-based treatment training initiative called cognitive behavioral therapy plus, on strategies for addressing clinician burnout. Questions related to burnout were added to the cognitive behavioral therapy plus 2022-2023 pretraining evaluation survey. Using a modified free-list technique in an online survey, participants suggested agency or supervisor solutions they felt would be helpful to reduce their burnout and answered a follow-up question indicating whether each solution was currently being implemented by their agency/supervisor. Thirty-three distinct burnout strategies spanning six domains-client-related, structural support, teams, emotional support, other supervisor support, and self-care-emerged through qualitative content analysis. Next, qualitative data were “quantitized” and were examined using confidence intervals to estimate the prevalence of the offered solutions. Encouragingly, many of the top-endorsed strategies (e.g., supervision sessions, morale/team-building, flexible work arrangement) were reported as being currently implemented. Manageable caseload emerged as a top-endorsed strategy, yet not currently implemented across many CMH agencies. Still, many low-cost and potentially feasible strategies emerged (e.g., check-ins, engaged supervisors, supervisor encouragement to take breaks or practice general self-care). Implications for policy and future research are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

PMID:42347786 | DOI:10.1037/ser0001062

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