Prevalence of Burnout in Social Workers in Community Social Services

Abstract

Introduction: The Burnout syndrome has been traditionally identified and investigated in helping professions or services sector, especially among health professionals and teachers. Although social workers have been acknowledged as a risk group of professionals, the literature about the aforementioned collective is limited. Lack of research prevents the real assessments of the syndrome while some authors argue it has been oversized. Hence, the main goal of our research is to measure the prevalence of the burnout syndrome in social workers at the community social services of the district of Santiago de Compostela. Materials and Methods: Our descriptive, cross-sectional research is based on MBI-HSS (Maslach Burnout Inventory – Human Services Survey) questionnaire, which measures three dimensions related to the burnout syndrome: Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization and Personal Accomplishment. The instrument based on MBI-HSS is applied to a set of social workers of community social services in the area of Santiago de Compostela. Results: The results show that 66.7% of social workers under research present a high degree of burnout syndrome in any of its three dimensions. The dimension “Emotional Exhaustion” is verified to be the most predominant. Discussion: Our findings show the need for further research through methodological adaptation and development of both prevention and improvement strategies.