Die slowly: burnout and mental health in the community

Although not speaking enough, the subject of burnout in the public health sector and social services and in education is known and minimally addressed by the unions of these environments. What is the current situation in the community?

working conditions that degrade

Sadly, the idealized vision that many people in our work is far from coinciding with reality. The findings are rather staggering : low wages, precarious working conditions (unpaid overtime, employment contracts of a few months, lack of insurance, absence of pension plans, etc.), high turnover, increased pressure from institutional network, permanent work overload, competition for funding exhausting ... The situation is not improving in a context where the government savagely cut in the social safety net. This is not to mention that a body can live different internal crises that undermine even benefit the work environment ; conflict with management, harassment, pressure of donors, etc.

The mental health of workers

A survey of 2001 stated that 85 % health and social services agencies say they face a permanent work overload, which translates to a rate of 63 % organizations experiencing major burnout problems¹. In another study from 2000, shows that respectively 79,2 % and 72,7 % shelters for women and young people to have experienced at least temporary or permanent departure of employee because of burnout in the five years preceding the survey². In 2010, Search showed that for 71 % women's groups, workers report feeling overwhelmed by the task at hand³. Beyond the short-term consequences of this psychological distress, it is important to put into perspective uNo hostile and stressful work environment, combined with poor conditions, can significantly reduce our life expectancy.

However, it seems rare that collectively the Community Workers talk about mental health. Effectively, we are working hard with the people who frequent our bodies, we mobilize to the survival of these organisms, but we are silent amazement-her when it comes to our own working conditions. Shoe and cordonnières chaussé mal-and-s, they say!

A taboo same plane around the question. If the subject comes up, we realize that we have much to say about our psychological distress while being punctuated by several comments reflecting our guilt to approach this distress : " But you know, I really love my job ... ", "I'm doing this because I believe, I'm not here for the money ", "It's really an opportunity to work in line with my values". That feeling of claiming better working conditions would be a form of selfishness on our part is very pervasive. Furthermore, the perception of our work as a form of commitment, self-giving or activism can also be an obstacle to the recognition of our suffering at work. Our values ​​seem more important than our personal limits, we therefore reject them constantly. This conduct is even, sort of, favored in the community.

Workers Community

About 80 % e-s-employee of community groups are women. If the Community Working conditions deteriorate, it is they who are predominantly expenses. Women therefore find themselves living tripling government attacks. Professionally, is precarious our working conditions. It has fewer resources as needs grow, thus creating a lot of stress and distress in many of us. On another side, the withdrawal of the State also means care in the private sphere, by women, various services abandoned by the state : Custody, support of parents losing their autonomy, care work, etc. Being very often close caregiver or parent family adds additional pressure on our mental health and our quality of life. Thereafter, personally, as users, when the time comes to cover somehow all injuries caused by an unequal society and oppressive, it is difficult to find adequate aid resources.

The speech of the "Beautification"

This fairly common expression, that launches frequently to colleagues or that serves us when we seem to be exhausted-e-s, is problematic. It is true that taking a yoga class, pay for a massage or practicing mediation can be beneficial to better manage stress, but this does not change the root causes of our suffering at work. We can not rely on individuals complete responsibility for their burnout. this logic misses the fact that these are organizational factors that causes this distress, not the so-called "weakness" of a person. To see real changes, these are our conditions of work that we need to challenge.

With the austere era that struck us as violently, it is time to talk about mental health at work, to organize for better conditions, but also collectively reflect on the creation of workplace less subject to professional exhaustion and psychological distress.