The Authors’ Own Words:
We ask authors to describe their impressions regarding the implications of their accepted work, how their findings will change practice, and what is noteworthy about the work.
Mark Beitel PhD; Lindsay Oberleitner PhD; Dharushana Muthulingam MD, MSc; David Oberleitner PhD; Lynn M. Madden PhD, MPA; Ruthanne Marcus PhD, MPH; Anthony Eller BS; Madeline H. Bono; & Declan T. Barry, PhD
Substance Abuse Vol. 39, Iss. 2, 2018
“The scale-up of medication-assisted treatment is crucial for addressing the current opioid treatment gap in the US. One barrier to scale-up is concern about the impact on staff of increased patient volume. Finding from this quality improvement study of drug counselors, employed at large opioid treatment programs whose capacities were expanding, yielded lower than expected rates of burnout. Participants reported a variety of onsite (e.g., taking breaks) and offsite (e.g., taking an exercise class) coping strategies to prevent burnout. Many strategies were low-cost and transportable to other settings. Overall, our findings suggest that drug counselor burnout is not inevitable, and opioid treatment programs might benefit from routinely seeking counselor feedback on burnout and implementing practical recommendations to enhance staff engagement and reduce burnout.”
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