Abstracts Health Sciences

The relationship between emotional intelligence, burnout, and compassion satisfaction of mental health case managers working in an outpatient mental health facility

by Benjamin Robertson

Mental health issues can have colossal and dismal consequences for not only those directly afflicted by them but also their circles of contacts. Mental health case managers (MHCMs) are often involved in the peoples’ lives who are affected by these mental health concerns. As a result, relevant constructs associated with the work of MHCMs are of interest. The prime purpose of this quantitative investigation is to identify if and to what degree emotional intelligence (EI) moderates the relationship between compassion satisfaction (CS) and burnout (BO). The purpose of additional inquiries is to determine if there are statistically significant relationships between the main variables themselves as well as between the main variables and selected demographics. The sample in this study involved 73 MHCMs working in eight distinct outpatient mental health facilities throughout the state of Texas. All the participants were provided an information sheet (see Appendix A), a demographic questionnaire (see Appendix B), a ProQOL questionnaire (Stamm, 2010; see Appendix C), and an SSEIT questionnaire (Schutte et al., 2009; see Appendix D). The findings of a three-step hierarchical regression analysis indicated that EI did not moderate the relationship between CS and BO. However, statistically significant findings were discovered between the main variables themselves and between the main variables and selected demographics. The conclusions from this study may be useful for MHCMs and administrators. Implications and recommendations for various stakeholders are offered. Keywords: emotional intelligence, compassion satisfaction, burnout, mental health case manager