Mental health clinicians are in demand, but keeping them is another story. In a survey of 100 mental health facilities across the country, almost all respondents said it was challenging to keep clinicians. Specifically, about one-third of respondents said that turnover is a problem at their facility. To combat high turnover and ensure your team remains happy and healthy, consider implementing these 7 strategies to reduce mental health clinician turnover.
1. Recognize the cost of the problem
It’s important to recognize the cost of the problem before you can solve it. Before you can address the root causes of mental health clinician turnover, you must know how many people are leaving your department and why. First, collect data on clinicians who’ve left the organization, documenting reasons for leaving and demographic information. Second, benchmark your turnover rate against industry standards. You can do this with data from the American Psychiatric Association. This can give you a sense of how your turnover rate compares to other similar organizations. Finally, document reasons clinicians have given for leaving. This can give you even more insight into areas that may need to be addressed. When you understand the scope of the problem, you can start to identify potential solutions.
2. Create a healthy environment for your staff
One of the best ways to reduce mental health clinician turnover is to create a healthy and sustainable work environment. This means providing support, promoting teamwork, and creating opportunities for growth. To help create a healthy work environment, consider these strategies:
Ensure you have the right staffing mix. - If you don’t have enough staff members, it can be challenging to provide quality care. Plus, clinicians might feel stressed because they don’t have enough time to do their jobs well. If you have too many employees, you might have an issue with underutilized staff. If you have too many employees, you might have an issue with underutilized staff.
Implement a flexible schedule - If you have clinicians who need to work a 9-5 schedule and other clinicians who might need to work from home because of a challenging child, it can be problematic. A flexible schedule can help alleviate some of these issues.
Promote a culture of safety - Clinicians want to feel safe at work. This means having policies that protect them and their health, but also providing a safe and welcoming environment where they can do their jobs. This includes having a good mental health culture, making sure everyone feels safe to express themselves, and giving the opportunity for everyone to give feedback about their work environment.
3. Be transparent about job expectations and requirements outside of patient sessions
Clinicians who love their jobs don’t want to leave. But if they aren’t sure about their job expectations or requirements, they may feel anxious about the future. This makes it important for you to be transparent about job expectations outside of patient sessions. This includes what clinicians need to do each week, their performance expectations, and the resources they have access to. While you should be transparent about expectations, you also need to be transparent about the requirements outside of work. For example, if you ask clinicians to attend training, bring a certain certification to the job, or have a certain license, it’s important to be transparent about those requirements.
4. Provide opportunities for career advancement
If your employees feel they don’t have opportunities to advance, they may feel unfulfilled and want to leave. You can combat this by providing opportunities for career advancement. This can be as simple as providing a peer review system to help employees see how they’re doing.
5. Establish protocols for communication and care
If you’re running a good facility, you’re constantly updating your protocols. These help your staff follow best practices, as well as ensure they’re treating patients in a way that’s proven to be effective. When you’re establishing protocols, make sure you are transparent with clinicians about why you’re updating them. This will help them understand the process and feel like they’re a part of the change. When you’re updating protocols, make sure you have a process for individuals to provide feedback on their proposed updates.
6. Give tools to staff to minimize time spent on administrative tasks
If you ever want to combat mental health clinician turnover, you need to minimize time spent on administrative tasks. This can be done by giving your staff the tools they need to do their jobs well. For example, if your staff manually enters data into an electronic health record, this can take up a lot of their time. But if you enhance your EHR with data capture capabilities, and auto-suggested filled forms, they won’t have to enter data manually. Emotivo generates progress notes, but also suggested Z Codes, so your staff doesn't need to learn the new billable codes. This can save them hours and hours of time every week.
7. Celebrate milestones and successes
If your staff members are feeling appreciated and included, they’re much less likely to want to leave. When you have milestones and successes, make sure you celebrate them. This can mean celebrating birthdays, providing acknowledgement for milestones like a year of service, or recognizing individuals who provide exceptional service. By celebrating these milestones and successes, you’re showing your staff that they are valued, and they are important members of the team.
Take action
The mental health industry is in dire need of clinicians and leaders who can provide quality care in a variety of settings. The problem is that the field is notoriously high stress and turnover-heavy. This is due in large part to the fact that the typical clinician is not properly equipped with the tools and resources they need to thrive. If you can address these issues and implement the 7 strategies listed above, you will be on your way to a healthier and happier workplace.
