Why the Answer to Burnout in Mental Health Isn’t To Push Through It
Burnout in mental health is often treated like a personal endurance problem rather than a systemic one. The assumption is subtle but persistent. If you are exhausted, overwhelmed, or detached, the solution must be more resilience, better coping, or stronger boundaries.
Yet the data tells a very different story. According to a 6-year longitudinal study, burnout rates in healthcare have been steadily increasing. In 2018, the rate was 30.4%, which steadily climbed to 35.4% in 2023. The study noted that one of the biggest increases in burnout was in mental health, where it jumped from 30.4% to 38.2%.
Essentially, mental health professionals are carrying heavier caseloads, navigating more administrative pressure, and supporting clients with increasingly complex needs. Rather than pushing through, it makes sense to stop and evaluate how serious the problem actually is. Let’s explore this a little deeper today.
What Kind of Impact Does Burnout Really Have?
Burnout is often discussed as something that harms the clinician. While this is important and true, it’s also worth noting that the effects rarely stay contained to the therapist. Emotional exhaustion has a way of quietly changing how a therapist shows up in sessions.
Indeed, one study on 165 therapists and 1,268 patients found that PTSD treatment was less effective when therapists reported burnout. This is attributed to lower levels of interpersonal engagement and empathy.
This clearly shows that burnout is not just a private struggle that can be compartmentalized away from clinical care. It influences the quality of connection at the center of therapy.
Recognizing this impact is critical to shifting the conversation from individual endurance to shared responsibility. This is the only way that any real change can come about. Employers are only going to take things seriously when they see that the issue can’t be solved by namesake solutions. This brings us to our next point.
What Actually Needs To Change To Reduce Burnout
Burnout does not resolve through individual grit or better time management. While personal coping tools can offer short-term relief, they do very little when the root causes remain untouched. Why is this so?
According to Sampsa Suomi, a crisis intervention consultant, compassion fatigue is the number one factor. He advocates that employers need to be willing to invest financially in worker well-being.
For instance, many clinicians want to deepen their expertise or expand their scope. If the burnout is caused by a lack of confidence in one’s abilities, increasing one’s skills can be a great option.
Yet traditional pathways often assume unlimited time, energy, and financial flexibility. For therapists who already have a master’s, the idea of pursuing yet another degree along with their case work can be daunting. However, it’s possible if institutions actually care to investigate the matter. Many people today have earned an online doctorate in mental health counseling without serious disruption to their work.
It’s very much doable. As the American International College notes, candidates get to study at their own pace with coursework being 100% online. Flexibility in this manner mirrors the flexibility that burnout prevention requires overall. Thus, it’s only when systems adapt to real human limits that true change can occur.
Burnout and the Quiet Drain on the Workforce
Another reason that burnout deserves extra attention is that it also shapes who stays in the profession and who eventually leaves it behind. If exhaustion becomes the norm, then it’s no surprise that retention becomes fragile. The sad part is that people do not always exit because they dislike the work itself. Many leave because sustaining the conditions around the work becomes impossible.
According to the Association of Mental Health Providers, UK, this is a field that has a considerably high turnover rate of 22.6%. In fact, some specialist mental health roles in certain regions had rates above 40%. It goes without saying that high turnover disrupts continuity of care, weakens supervision structures, and places additional pressure on those who remain.
Each departure often means redistributed caseloads, fewer mentors, and less institutional memory to support newer clinicians. In other words, the burnout cycle reinforces itself as it gets worse.
This makes it harder for the entire mental health industry to sustain ethical, high-quality care. Viewing burnout only as an individual issue overlooks how deeply it is tied to workforce survival and the long-term health of mental health systems
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What does burnout feel like?
Burnout often feels like a mix of constant exhaustion and emotional numbness. You may still care about your work, but everything takes more effort than it should. Motivation drops, empathy feels harder to access, and even small tasks start to feel overwhelming over time.
2. What is the 42% rule for burnout?
The 42% rule refers to research suggesting that when job demands exceed a person’s available capacity by roughly 42%, burnout risk rises sharply. It highlights that burnout is not about weakness, but about sustained overload that outpaces recovery and support.
3. What are the challenges mental health workers face?
Mental health workers often deal with heavy caseloads, emotional strain from client trauma, time pressure, and limited resources. On top of that, administrative work, staffing shortages, and the expectation to stay endlessly empathetic can make the job feel unsustainable over time.
Ultimately, rising burnout rates, reduced treatment effectiveness, and high workforce turnover all point to the same conclusion. The problem is not a lack of dedication among mental health professionals. It is the expectation that dedication should compensate for unsustainable conditions.
Pushing through burnout may keep systems functioning in the short term, but it weakens care over time. It drains empathy, accelerates exits from the field, and places clients at risk of receiving support from professionals who are running on empty. The sooner this is recognized, the sooner we can hope for real change.
