In 1989, SAMHSA designated September as National Recovery Month to recelebrate the millions of Americans who have sought recovery from Substance Use Disorder. Since then, the recovery community and the treatment community have observed this holiday as a way to combat the stigma that persists around this pervasive, life-threatening disease. 

National Recovery Month is not only an opportunity to educate the public about SUD and the latest evidence-based treatments available for addressing the addiction crisis in our country. It’s also an opportunity to celebrate the thousands of people who have dedicated their lives to walking alongside those battling addiction.

In this post, we’ll celebrate the lifeblood of the recovery movement: the clinicians and paraprofessionals who show up to work day after day to help patients on their recovery journey. Make no mistake, this is a demanding job. The rates of clinician burnout in the behavioral health field are astronomical. 

In honor of National Recovery Month, here’s our 4 best tips for easing clinician burnout. 

Burnout Prevention Tip #1: Clearly Define the Scope of Your Clinician’s Role

Not know where your job ends and where another person’s job begins is a recipe for burnout. Too many clinicians find themselves acting over and above their skillset on the job in poorly defined roles and ambiguous organizational structures. Others find themselves overfunctioning in their roles due to high turnover and overwhelming patient to staff ratios.

In order to reduce this confusion and the stress it brings, make it a point to clearly define your clinicians’ roles - and stick to those guidelines at all times. Your clinicians should not be concerned with the finer details of billing, scheduling, or mindless paperwork responsibilities. They need to be freed up from these lesser responsibilities to focus on quality patient care.

Burnout Prevention Tip #2: Close Skills Gaps With Smart Training Opportunities 

There are so many different skills that go into effective clinical care. No clinician is an expert at every facet of this job. When clinicians are challenged above their skill level, it’s easy for them to get overwhelmed and feel ill-suited to their role. This daily wear-and-tear on a clinician’s sense of personal efficacy and competency can take a huge toll on self-esteem and confidence. 

To avoid this trap, be sure to offer supportive clinical supervision and maintain a culture of collaborative problem solving. Offer regular training and career development opportunities for clinicians so that they can continue to learn and grow in their role. This sense of support is critical to combating a sense of overwhelm and burnout in behavioral health. 

Burnout Prevention Tip #3: Give Behavioral Health Clinicians the Tools They Need for the Job 

Clinicians spend almost as much time with their EHR or EMR software as they do with patients. So many of the software programs our clinicians are using to log notes, track lab results, coordinate appointments, manage medications and organize clinical communications are clunky, difficult to use and outdated. Too many of them are not specifically designed with behavioral health workflows in mind. Most of them are “legacy” programs that stand out as relics in the workplace.

Yes, it’s difficult to migrate to a new system. But with meaningful customer support and comprehensive staff training, the transition period can be easier than you think. 

Choosing an intuitive, all-in-one, cloud-based EMR especially designed for behavioral health is a good place to start. Behave Health offers one of the most modern, easy-to-use software solutions for behavioral health on the market. 

Because Behave Health can be accessed from any device, anywhere, it’s ideal for clinicians who require a hybrid work environment and flexibility to complete some of their work at home or in the field. This flexibility contributes to a sense of work-life balance, again, acting as a protective factor in reducing clinician burnout. 

Burnout Prevention Tip #4: Automate Repetitive Behavioral Health Clinician Tasks Whenever Possible 

So many behavioral health workflows are painfully inefficient. 

Think: faxed Release of Information (ROI) forms, paper-based UA results, paper-digital hybrid patient records, frankensteined repetitive intake packets, noisy charts, and more. 

In an already stressful job, tedious tasks like these can take an outsized toll on staff. 

Make life easier for your clinicians by automating low-value tasks whenever possible. 

A good behavioral health EHR, like Behave Health, will offer ultra-efficient paperless workflows, built-in AI assistance, and voice-to-text dictation for SOAP notes, treatment plans and more. 

Staff feel relief when their software works for them rather than against them. This reduces the overall workplace stress for clinicians and prevents burnout before it begins. 

Behave Health Stops Clinician Burnout Before it Begins

Behave Health is committed to making it easier - and more profitable - to operate evidence-based, results-focused addiction treatment centers.

Our all-in-one app puts clinical, administration, staff, admissions, alumni, residents, treatment plans, billing, insurance authorizations and more - all at your fingertips.

Get your free trial started today and see why more addiction treatment centers prefer Behave Health.

PS. Just getting started with behavioral health? Need help with certification, too? Behave Health can also help direct you to the right resources for help with Licensing or Accreditation by either The Joint Commission or CARF. Mention to your product specialist that you’re interested in this service after you start your free trial!