Information

Burnout is not just about long hours and a heavy workload – it often develops when stress at work builds up and unhelpful habits of thinking and coping take hold. Our research with hundreds of NHS staff has found that approaches based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) are especially effective at reducing burnout and improving wellbeing. UpLift4Work brings these proven CBT strategies into a practical, easy-to-use programme designed to help you regain balance and energy. If you’re interested in learning more about the theories and background research, you can read more below.

There are different perspectives on the causes of occupational burnout and the potential changes that could help to alleviate its symptoms. One prominent theory, called the job demands-resources model (Bakker et al., 2014) proposes that burnout occurs when the demands of work outweigh the available resources (e.g., infrastructure, equipment, training, support) but the worker has to try to meet these demands. A similar perspective is found in the effort-reward imbalance model (Siegrist, 1996), which argues that burnout occurs when the worker’s effort is inadequately rewarded, reflecting a deficit of recognition, pay or other benefits.

Psychological theories such as the social-cognitive theory of stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) and cognitive behavioural therapy (Hollon & Beck, 2004) assume that stress is “triggered” by work demands but becomes chronic when the person develops unhelpful habits in response to these demands, such as persistent negative thoughts (e.g., excessive worry and pessimism) and counter-productive behaviours (e.g., avoid dealing with problems, overwork).

Two current approaches to treat occupational burnout are based on job crafting, and cognitive behavioural therapy.

Job crafting draws on the job demands-resources theory, and it generally aims to increase resources (e.g., infrastructure, training, support) and to make the demands of work more manageable. This can be achieved making changes to one’s job tasks (task crafting); managing relationships with colleagues and customers (relational crafting); amplifying rewards (cognitive crafting); improving one’s work context (environment crafting) and developing skills (development crafting).

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) focuses, instead, on changing the individual’s way of thinking about daily work events and the action strategies they use to deal with work challenges. This can be achieved by understanding the relationships between work situations, thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and behaviours. The person learns to identify unhelpful ways of thinking and to change their mindset, adopting more flexible ways of thinking and more effective problem-solving techniques. This intervention also includes relaxation skills that help to sooth the body and the mind, helping to restore energy and to achieve a better work-life balance.

Since 2018, our research team has carried out several studies to investigate the risk factors and the consequences of occupational burnout, and to find out how best to support healthcare professionals. This work has been led by Professor Jaime Delgadillo (King’s College London) and sponsored by the National Health Service (NHS) in England. We have developed brief interventions based on the above theories and in consultation with many healthcare professionals to ensure they are acceptable, inexpensive, safe and effective. To date, we have involved 600 NHS professionals in clinical trials. Our research demonstrates that, while both job crafting and CBT help to reduce occupational burnout and to improve psychological wellbeing in the short term (after 6 weeks), CBT is the most effective way to achieve sustained improvements (after 6 months). Based on this evidence, the most effective CBT techniques have been fully integrated into the UpLift4Work platform.

We are currently conducting new clinical trials evaluating the effectiveness of UpLift4Work in different work contexts, such as in emergency care and inpatient psychiatric care. Further information about current projects is available in the Get Involved page.

Delgadillo, J., Saxon, D., & Barkham, M. (2018). Associations between therapists’ occupational burnout and their patients’ depression and anxiety treatment outcomes. Depression and Anxiety, 35(9), 844-850. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.22766

Delgadillo, J., Laker, V., Simmonds-Buckley, M., Southgate, A., Parkhouse, A., Davis, B., […], & Barkham, M. (under review). Digital health interventions for occupational burnout in healthcare professionals: a multi-site randomised non-inferiority trial.

Delgadillo, J., Laker, V., Simmonds-Buckley, M., Davis, B., Furlong-Silva, J., Keeble, S., […], & Thwaites, R. (under review). Randomized controlled trial of job crafting as a digital health intervention for occupational burnout in psychological therapists.