Protecting youth workers against stress and burnout

Our team at St Patrick’s Mental Health Services explores some psychological approaches which may help against stress and burnout for those working with young people.

Youth workers supporting young people can face challenging roles and situations which affect their mental health.

Youth workers and other related professionals often work with young people who may be going through behavioural problems, physical or intellectual disabilities, or psychological issues, as well as young people from alternative care, migrant communities and minority groups. The challenges that young people in these contexts can present can trigger strong feelings of empathy, sadness or even anger in their youth workers. This can make it difficult for people working in these professions to switch off from work and enjoy an uninterrupted work-life balance.

Burnout in youth workers

People who work with vulnerable youth groups can become emotionally attached to their roles. As they are required to provide mental and physical support to young people, it is crucial that their own mental and physical health is safeguarded as much as possible.

Although “most jobs and many life experiences generate some degree of stress and strain, it seems that this problem may be exacerbated among individuals working in emotionally demanding environments''. From the 1970s, this phenomenon began to be described using the term “burnout”, “especially among people working in the human services''.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a type of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and psychological intervention that is empirically-based, which means that evidence for its effect is based on observation and experience.

The aim of ACT is not to get rid of difficult feelings; instead, it is to be present with what life brings us and to "move toward valued behaviour". ACT invites people to open up to unpleasant feelings, to learn not to overreact to them, and to resist avoiding situations where these feelings come up. Its therapeutic effect is a positive spiral where feeling better leads to a better understanding of the truth: in ACT, this truth is measured through the concept of 'workability', or what works to take another step toward what matters (such as values or meaning).

At its core, ACT uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies, combined in different ways with commitment and behaviour-change strategies, to increase psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility is the ability to stay in contact with the present moment, regardless of unpleasant thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations, while choosing one's behaviours based on the situation and personal values.

Psychological flexibility

Studies show that psychological flexibility is associated with quality of life and mental wellbeing, and may have an impact on reducing symptoms. It is worth noticing that psychological flexibility is not a state of happiness or ease, but an ability to flexibly navigate through the changing demands of life when difficult thoughts and feelings arise.

This means that the way that psychological or mental health is evaluated goes beyond reducing symptoms to including how the person as a whole functions with respect to what they value (known as their valued life domains): “a healthy person is someone who can manage themselves in the uncertain, unpredictable world around them, where novelty and change are the norm rather than the exception”.

Support for youth workers

Studies indicate that the absence of psychological flexibility predicts many forms of psychopathology, or mental ill-health, with a growing body of research into ACT demonstrating its link to improved psychological flexibility.

ACT is ideal for developing psychological flexibility in youth workers who work with vulnerable young people, because it directs us toward values and committed actions, while teaching us how to accept what we cannot change. This would enable youth workers to better deal with the feelings that arise in their roles, to switch off from their work, and to avoid burnout. Equally, if youth workers not only develop psychological flexibility but gain the tools with which they, in turn, can help young people to establish their own psychological flexibility, their hard work would be supported in an even more meaningful way.

The six core principles of ACT are all interrelated. Learning about and following these principles would support youth workers to target unhelpful control and avoidance behaviours, while empowering psychological flexibility:

1. Cognitive diffusion: Learning methods to reduce the tendency to rectify thoughts, images, emotions, and memories
2. Acceptance: Allowing unwanted private experiences (thoughts, feelings and urges) to come and go without struggling with them
3. Contact with the present moment: Being aware of the here and now, experienced with openness, interest, and receptiveness (such as mindfulness)
4. The observing self: Accessing a transcendent sense of self, a continuity of consciousness which is unchanging
5. Values: Discovering what is most important to the person
6. Committed action: Setting goals according to values and carrying them out responsibly, in the service of a meaningful life.

Traditional face-to-face psychotherapy like ACT may not be available or accessible for many youth workers supporting young people in difficult circumstances, especially those living in rural or under-resourced areas. However, computerized CBT treatments show promising results in treating anxiety and depression disorders, as well as in creating healthy ways of dealing with stress. These kinds of developments will hopefully be part of a future in which youth workers can protect better protect themselves against stress and burnout, feel more fulfilled in their work, and transfer their positive mental health knowledge and skills to the young people they work with.