The Role of Self-Care Strategies and Workplace Support on Burnout Among Case Managers

Case managers in the health and human service profession are known to be at an elevated risk for burnout. Most of the research in this area focuses on contributing factors of burnout as compared to reductive measures. Where it does exist, the emphasis is directed toward agency versus individual interventions. Self-care is often proclaimed to be effective in lowering burnout at the individual level, but the evidence is insufficient. The aim of this study was to narrow the gap by exploring self-care strategies along with workplace support as potential protectors against burnout among case managers.

Participants in the study were primarily employed in hospitals and insurance companies. To a smaller extent, some case managers were working in community and mental health settings.

This study used a cross-sectional, quantitative, and survey design. Through the Case Management Society of America, 257 case managers responded to a Qualtrics survey that was used to explore two research questions and three hypotheses. Through the data cleaning process, the final sample was 203 case managers.

High to moderate levels of burnout were found in the study with occasional engagement in self-care strategies among participants. They also reported moderate work support with more coming from their coworkers than their supervisors. Partial support was found for the three hypotheses where increasing levels of self-care strategies significantly predicted lower emotional exhaustion and depersonalization but also lower instead of higher levels of personal accomplishment. Increasing levels of workplace support, specific only to coworkers, predicted lower emotional exhaustion.

The findings from this study reveal the need to further explore the way self-care strategies influence burnout. As a baseline, this study showed that self-care can lower some forms of burnout. Therefore, case managers should seek to develop and implement a consistent self-care plan. More research is needed to identify the specific mechanisms of self-care that are at play. Some questions to explore include whether certain forms of self-care are more helpful than others, if the fit between the individual and selected self-care strategy is important, and the factors that contribute to successful self-care implementation. Answers to these questions will provide better guidance to case managers on how to practice self-care. This study also highlights the significance of workplace support from coworkers in relation to emotional exhaustion. As such, health and human service organizations should consider ways to foster a culture that supports positive coworker relationships, as in the case of mentoring programs or team-building activities.