Psychological safety, compassion fatigue and burnout among mental health providers in higher education institutions

Mental health providers play a vital role especially in the educational setting. They deal with the students’ adjustment to new environment, day-to-day experiences and career choices and the needs of the higher education institution they work with. This study used sequential explanatory mixed method which combined quantitative and qualitative method. Results showed that the respondents were experiencing low levels of psychological safety and average levels of compassion fatigue and burnout. Work relationship was the theme that emerged for the respondents’ psychological safety while self-care was the theme that emerged for both compassion fatigue and burnout. Results also suggests that respondents were vulnerable to psychological safety, compassion fatigue and burnout as the results revealed no significant relationship between the profile of the respondents and the three (3) variables. It was also found out that compassion satisfaction is negatively correlated with exhaustion, mental distance and overall burnout. Results also suggests that burnout is positively correlated to exhaustion, mental distance, cognitive impairment and the respondents’ overall burnout. More so, it was found out that secondary traumatic stress is positively correlated with exhaustion, mental distance, cognitive impairment, emotional impairment and overall burnout. An intervention module tailored to the needs of the mental health providers in the province.