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Old age psychiatrists: what do they find stressful?
1Central Manchester Healthcare NHS Trust, UK.
Objective:
To examine the main sources of stress for practising old age psychiatrists.
Design:
Postal survey.
Setting:
Old age psychiatry services in England and Wales.
Participants:
Old age psychiatrists on the list held by the Section of Old Age Psychiatry, Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Main Outcome Measures:
Number and nature of stresses identified by respondents.
Main Results:
One hundred and thirty-eight old age psychiatrists identified a mean of 5.1 stresses per respondent, which fell into seven broad categories: changes within the health service, community care changes, personal, management-related, resource-related, related to time pressures, overwork and others.
Conclusions:
Unavoidable stresses were rarely listed. Most were related to work overload and organizational structure and climate. More research is needed on stress in other areas of psychiatry, ways to minimize/prevent stress and how to optimize the balance between work and home life.