“It’s heart-breaking and unsustainable": Over half of NHS mental health professionals considering leaving their role, according to Mind
More than half of NHS mental health professionals surveyed (56%) are considering leaving their role due to current working conditions they are facing and the impact this is having on the quality of care they can deliver, Mind can reveal.
In a new survey conducted by Mind*, almost 700 NHS mental health professionals responded to questions about their working conditions. Results showed:
• Close to two thirds (65%) said they had suffered burnout or emotional exhaustion;
• More than half (57%) reported anxiety or psychological distress;
• Nearly half (49%) said they had experienced an impact on their ability to maintain a compassionate approach;
• Close to half (47%) said the impacts on their work had somewhat or significantly worsened over the last 12 months, and only around one in four (24%) felt it had somewhat or significantly improved.
Many professionals reported that key challenges they face in delivering high-quality care include inadequate staffing levels, high caseloads, the volume of administrative tasks, and people presenting with more complex and acute mental health problems.
Tom Pollard, Head of Policy, Public Affairs and Campaigns at Mind, said:
“Behind these statistics are dedicated mental health professionals trying to prop up an unsustainable system. These findings show the immense level of strain that the mental health system, including its workforce, is under, and its inability to meet the level of need it is facing.
“Great mental health care is human – it makes us feel heard, understood and supported. Strong, therapeutic relationships are critical, but staff need the space and time to develop them. Many professionals have told us how overwhelmed they are by the level of need they are facing, the conditions they are working in and the resulting struggle to deliver the quality of care they want to.
“People with mental health problems and dedicated staff deserve better. Greater wellbeing support for professionals is desperately needed but it won't solve the whole problem. We need to fundamentally rethink the way people access mental health support, to relieve pressure on staff so that they can deliver the lifechanging care they got into the profession for in the first place.”
Mental health professionals need to be supported to deliver great care
Core elements like pay, hours and conditions are clearly important for whether roles in mental health services are attractive, rewarding and sustainable.
This includes the support offered to staff around their own wellbeing and mental health. However, for many of the professionals responding to Mind’s survey, their focus was more on the quality of care they felt able to deliver and the barriers standing in the way of this.
To provide high-quality mental health care, services must have the right number of staff in the right roles, with the right values and appropriate knowledge and skills. Staff caseloads must allow them to spend enough time with everyone they are supporting, as well as liaising with other professionals and services. The culture of teams, driven by good management, is also critical.
These factors should be central to the new mental health strategy the government is developing. But we also need to fundamentally rethink how people access mental health support. Mind is calling for a ‘same-day open access’ model - if people are properly heard, understood and helped earlier, they will often need less intensive and less clinical support. Their mental health problems will be less likely to deteriorate or become more complex, with fewer people going into crisis. All of this would ultimately help to relieve pressure on NHS services and staff, supporting them to deliver better care.
Tanya B, a Recovery Navigator in the South West of England who is speaking in a personal capacity based on her previous experience in the NHS, said:
“My colleagues are individually wonderful, compassionate professionals. The system breaks us as it’s not resourced enough.
“Mental health services are still operating as a medical model system and are so under pressure that it feels like you’re working in a system that seeks to exclude patients from having a service rather than inclusive to really help. I witnessed patients who would get 10 minutes a month of support. I witnessed patients who were labelled hostile for constantly reporting suicidal thoughts.
“There is a lack of community resources. Caseloads are too high. The thresholds are so high that so many patients who could be helped to find suitable support are rejected with nowhere to go.”
Andrew Hughes, a Social Worker in London who is also speaking in a personal capacity, added:
"Social Work can be incredibly stressful and demanding. Like many professions centred on supporting those in need, on a daily basis we face high caseloads, a diverse range of mental health and social issues, a lack of resources, and pressure to quantify care into outcomes and targets.
“We work within a set of systems and processes that are often siloed and inefficient and, without meaning to, actively create barriers for frontline staff to provide care. There is a huge need for compassionate, person-centred, practical and assertive support for an increasing number of people facing challenges with their mental health.
“I love my job and am proud of so much of the work we do but the systems we rely on are struggling to cope and deliver the meaningful care we all deserve.”
