Employee Wellness Pilot Program

Area of Science:

• Mental Health
• Occupational Health
• Psychology

Background:

• Mental health professionals serving veterans face high risks of compassion fatigue, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress.
• These occupational challenges can lead to workforce instability.
• Positive outcomes are possible, but negative impacts are a significant concern.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a pilot employee wellness program designed to mitigate compassion fatigue in mental health professionals.
• To assess the program's impact on burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and intent to stay.

Main Methods:

• A 9-week pilot wellness program with weekly modules during lunch hours.
• Pre- and post-program surveys using the Professional Quality of Life Scale version 5 (ProQOL-5) and an intent to stay scale.
• Demographic data collection pre-program.

Main Results:

• Post-program participants showed a higher intent to leave their positions compared to pre-program participants.
• Compassion satisfaction scores increased, while burnout and secondary traumatic stress scores decreased post-program.
• No significant differences were found in ProQOL-5 subscale scores between pre- and post-program groups.

Conclusions:

• The pilot program may indicate a potential positive change in participants' well-being, despite a lack of statistically significant differences in ProQOL-5 scores.
• This intervention offers a creative, resource-limited solution for organizations to address compassion fatigue.
• Further research is needed to confirm the program's effectiveness.