Co-creation of a national burnout secondary prevention programme in Belgium: a pilot project

Employee well-being is threatened by major technological and organisational changes in the work environment which lead to more burnout. This is why the Belgian Federal Agency for Occupational Risks (Fedris) commissioned two scientific experts to map and summarise existing research conducted on the prevalence and prevention of burnout to develop a national secondary prevention Burnout Treatment Programme (BOTP). This paper presents the development, content and evaluation of a pilot secondary prevention BOTP for the hospital and banking sectors.

Based on a literature search, the BOTP was developed using a co-creation method, characterised by an iterative process. During the intervention development, proposals were presented and discussed with several field experts as well as social partners from both pilot sectors.

The designed BOTP is a multidisciplinary programme combining an individual and organisational approach. It comprises a maximum of 20 intervention sessions carried out with different health and prevention professionals, the burnout treatment provider and the individual sessions provider, over 9 months. The secondary prevention programme is flexible, allowing it to be adapted to each participant's needs and expectations. Also, a three-time measurement programme evaluation was designed (pre-test, post-test 1 after the BOTP and post-test 2 3-6 months after the BOTP).

Through an iterative, multistakeholder and co-creation process, this pilot project created interventions that hold promise in preventing burnout within the banking and health sector. It was implemented by Fedris in January 2019 and at the end of the study, in December 2022, approximately 1400 employees enrolled, thus encouraging further implementation and research in other sectors. The implementation process and outcomes of the planned evaluation will be reported in a separate paper.