Burnout and leadership in community mental health systems

This study investigated whether aspects of burnout in clinical staff in community mental health agencies were systematically related to aspects of leadership behavior and quality of supervision of clinical supervisors. Burnout was measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory, leadership behavior was measured by the Leadership Practices Inventory, and clinical supervision by a scale constructed by the authors. Significant, though moderate relationships were found between the measures, and the implications for an organizational model of burnout, as well as prevention of burnout in mental health professionals are discussed.