Psychological distress and burnout in australian employment service workers: Two years on

During 2001, 152 case managers providing intensive assistance to the unemployed completed the 12‐item General Health Questionnaire (D. P. Goldberg, 1978) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI; C. Maslach, S. E. Jackson, & M. P. Leiter, 1996). Of the 152 case managers, 48% endorsed responses indicating psychological distress, and on emotional exhaustion, the core dimension of burnout on the MBI, the mean for these case managers was significantly higher than that published for other human service workers. The results confirm data from a 1999 longitudinal study and indicate significant levels of burnout and distress in employment service case managers in the Australian Job Network.