Mental Health Counselor Burnout

The primary aim of this study is to examine whether caseload size is correlated with counselor burnout. It is hypothesized that counselor burnout, measured by the Mental Health Counselor Burnout Assessment (MHCBA) will be associated with greater burnout rates. A positive correlation is expected. In order to gain deeper understanding of counselor burnout and the relationship between caseload sizes it is important to engage counselors in a survey regarding this experience.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. What is the effect of caseload size on mental health counselor burnout at an outpatient agency?
2. What is the relationship between caseload size and counselor burnout?
RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
H1. There will be a statistically significant difference in
Burnout is an experience of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and decreased sense of personal accomplishment (Maslach & Jackson, 1981).
ASSUMPTIONS
It is assumed that:
1. All counselors at Community Counseling have an active client caseload.
2. There will be consistency in the scoring of the Mental Health Counselor Burnout Assessment.
LIMITATIONS
A limitation to the present study is the Mental Health Counselor Burnout Assessment (MHCBA). Its face-validity appears to be good, but it is not a commonly studied measure like the Counselor Burnout Inventory (CBI). It is unclear whether the same effects would be observed with the MHCBA measure. Another limitation in this study is the sensitivity of the topic discussed in the surveys. Participants may believe that personal disclosure may negatively affect his/her employment at the outpatient mental health
This measurement device is modeled off of the Counselor Burnout Inventory (CBI). The MHCBA will be used to measure participant’s level of burnout. The CBI is a 20-item instrument designed to measure burnout in professional counselors (Lee et al., 2007). The MHCBA will be divided into three subscales. The subscales are exhaustion, depersonalization and accomplishment. Participants rate items on a five-point Likert-type scale. The scale will range from one meaning strongly disagree to five meaning strongly agree. In addition to this measurement device there will be a section entitled caseload size. The case load size section will be used to measure the amount of clients each counselor has on his/her caseloads. Counselors will write a number representing the amount of active clients they are currently seeing at the community