Approved mental health professionals polled over stress

A survey to measure burnout among approved mental health professionals (AMHPs) has been launched by researchers at King’s College London.

The research follows a survey of mental health social workers in 2002 which found that almost half of respondents met the threshold for a common mental health disorder, such as anxiety or depression.

The findings for approved social workers (ASWs), which were replaced by AMHPs in 2008, “were even more worrying”, according to a member of the research team. Writing in his blog, social work lecturer Martin Webber said ASWs took more sick leave than their colleagues and were less satisfied with their work.

The new survey will measure whether stress levels have changed since 2002 and the impact of replacing ASWs with AMHPs, which opened up the role to non-social workers.

It was hoped that the introduction of AMHPs would increase the number of people able to carry out statutory mental health act assessments and therefore reduce the stress associated with the role.

The survey also compares stress levels between social work and non-social work AMHPs and between AMHPs and other professional groups.

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