Caseload factors and the psychological well-being of community mental health staff

This study investigates whether perceived work characteristics can account for the associations between staff mental health and caseload factors. Seventy-nine multidisciplinary community mental health workers completed questionnaires measuring mental health and the work characteristics demand, control, support and role clarity. Caseload details including size, client diagnosis, gender and level of need, were obtained from service records. Multiple regression revealed that staff mental health was positively related to level of client need. This counter-intuitive result may be understood by the additional finding that level of client need was positively related to role clarity. Further, a higher proportion of clients with psychosis was associated with lower role clarity and higher demand. Staff mental health was also related to caseload size and client gender. It is concluded that work characteristics may help to account for some of the associations between caseload dimensions and staff mental health. Methodological limitations, implications for intervention and directions for future research are discussed.