Prevalence and determinants of the psychiatric hospital’s psychosocial risks

The objective of this study is to establish a diagnosis of psychosocial risks in the context of the psychiatric hospital by exploring their determinants. That’s why we carried out a survey by self-administered questionnaires with volunteer staff (caregivers, administrative, and technical) from 3 psychiatric hospitals in the Rhône Alpes Auvergne region, including French adaptations of the Job Content Questionnaire, the Maslach Burn-out Inventory, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Perceived Stress Scale, the Caplan, Cobb and French’s Workload scale, a socio-demographic questionnaire, and an open question on their perceptions of the sources of hardship in their work. Our results indicate that for the respondents to this survey, the first preliminary tensions of ill-being and health risks could not be avoided. The 510 respondents to our survey bear witness to a critical subjective experience on several aspects of psychosocial risks: low decision latitude, emotional exhaustion, significant perceived workload. We wanted to understand the dynamics of this process. We sought to identify critical contextual determinants. Professional categories and types of services are discriminating variables. In our study, all professional categories have modest personalaccomplishment scores. And then, the notion of professional exhaustion corresponds to the expression of a feeling of inner emptiness and difficulty to enter into relationship with others. It is a singular difficulty in a work that involves providing relational care to patients.
Our results open up useful perspectives in the field of management. Improving the perception of social support provided by hierarchical superiors would help reduce the burnout observed. Reducing stress would promote an improvement in the feeling of personal accomplishment, which our study shows weakness.