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The British Journal of Psychiatry (2003) 183: 139-147
© 2003 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

Assertive outreach teams in London: staff experiences and perceptions

Pan-London Assertive Outreach Study, Part 2{dagger}

JOANNE BILLINGS, MA, SONIA JOHNSON, MRCPsych and PAUL BEBBINGTON, FRCPsych

University College London and Camden and Islington Mental Health and Social Care Trust

ADELE GREAVES, BA

Department of General Psychiatry, St George's Hospital Medical School, London

STEFAN PRIEBE, FRCPsych

Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry, Barts' and The London School of Medicine

MATT MUIJEN, PhD and IAIN RYRIE, MA

Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health

JOANNA WATTS, MA

Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry, Barts' and the London School of Medicine

IAN WHITE, PhD, MRC

Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge

CHRISTINE WRIGHT, FRCPsych

Department of General Psychiatry, St George's Hospital Medical School, London

Correspondence: Dr Sonia Johnson, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Wolfson Building, 48 Riding House Street, London W1N 8AA, UK. E-mail: s.johnson{at}ucl.ac.uk

Declaration of interest Funding provided by the Department of Health.

{dagger} See Parts 1 and 3, pp. 132-138,148-154, this issue.

Background The job satisfaction, burn-out and work experiences of assertive outreach team staff are likely to be important to the model's sustainability.

Aims To describe self-reported views and work experiences of staff in London's 24 assertive outreach teams and to compare these with staff in community mental health teams (CMHTs) and between different types of assertive outreach team.

Method Confidential staff questionnaires in London's assertive outreach teams (n=187, response rate=89%) and nine randomly selected CMHTs (n=114, response rate=75%).

Results Staff in assertive outreach teams and CMHTs were moderately satisfied with their jobs, with similar sources of satisfaction and stress. Mean scores were low or average for all sub-scales of the Maslach Burnout Inventory for the assertive outreach team and the CMHT staff, with some differences suggesting less burn-out in the assertive outreach teams. Nine of the 24 assertive outreach teams had team means in the high range for emotional exhaustion and there were significant differences between types of assertive outreach team in some components of burn-out and satisfaction.

Conclusions These findings are encouraging, but repeated investigation is needed when assertive outreach teams have been established for longer.


Related articles in BJP:

Assertive outreach teams in London: models of operation: Pan-London Assertive Outreach Study, Part 1
CHRISTINE WRIGHT, TOM BURNS, PETER JAMES, JOANNE BILLINGS, SONIA JOHNSON, MATT MUIJEN, STEFAN PRIEBE, IAIN RYRIE, JOANNA WATTS, and IAN WHITE
BJP 2003 183: 132-138. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

Assertive outreach teams in London: patient characteristics and outcomes: Pan-London Assertive Outreach Study, Part 3
STEFAN PRIEBE, WALID FAKHOURY, JOANNA WATTS, PAUL BEBBINGTON, TOM BURNS, SONIA JOHNSON, MATT MUIJEN, IAIN RYRIE, IAN WHITE, and CHRISTINE WRIGHT
BJP 2003 183: 148-154. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

Highlights of this issue
ELIZABETH WALSH
BJP 2003 183: 89-a7. [Full Text]  



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