Effectiveness of Mindfulness Intervention in Reducing Stress and Burnout for Mental Health Professionals in Singapore
Open accessAbstract
Introduction Stress and burnout have been shown to be a concern among mental health professionals in several countries including Singapore, and can affect quality of care and staff turnover. The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a mindfulness program in increasing mindfulness and compassion, and reducing stress and burnout, among mental health professionals in Singapore.Methods The study utilized data from a prospective pre-post study design with follow-up. A total of 37 mental health professionals participated in the program, which was conducted in three cohorts over nine months. The program consisted of six, two-hour sessions offered once a week over six weeks, and used a range of mindfulness techniques to teach participants to cultivate compassionate and non-judgemental attitudes toward their inner experiences. Data were collected at three stages: pre- and post-intervention, and three months follow-up. Assessments considered mindfulness (five facets mindfulness questionnaire), compassion (self-compassion scale-SF and compassion scale), stress (perceived stress scale-10), and burnout (Oldenburg Burnout inventory).Results Participants demonstrated significant improvement in four of the five mindfulness facets (observe, describe, non-judge, and non-react) and in compassion levels, and a significant reduction in stress, following intervention. The gains in mindfulness and self-compassion scores were maintained at three months follow-up. No change was observed for burnout variables.Conclusion Results suggest that mindfulness training was effective in reducing stress and improving mindfulness and compassion, but not decreasing burnout, for this group of mental health professionals in Singapore. Future experimental research with larger samples is warranted to validate the findings of the present study.
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Significant improvements in self-compassion were maintained at follow-ups ranging from 3 months to 26 weeks.
“Significant improvements in self-compassion were also maintained and ranged from 3-months (Suyi et al. 2017) to 26-week follow-up (Crowder and Sears 2017).”
From The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on the Psychological Functioning of Healthcare Professionals: a Systematic Review (2021) · cites this paper as Suyi et al. 2017
Significant stress reductions were not maintained at 3-month and 6-month follow-up.
“significant reductions in stress were not maintained at 3-month follow-up (Ducar et al. 2019; Suyi et al. 2017) and 6-month follow-up (Ducar et al. 2019).”
From The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on the Psychological Functioning of Healthcare Professionals: a Systematic Review (2021) · cites this paper as Suyi et al. 2017
Two included MBSR programmes were 6 weeks long and produced significant improvements in stress, burnout, mindfulness, and self-compassion.
“Two MBSR programmes were 6 weeks in duration and yielded significant improvements in stress, burnout, mindfulness and self-compassion (Duarte and Pinto-Gouveia 2016; Suyi et al. 2017)”
From The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on the Psychological Functioning of Healthcare Professionals: a Systematic Review (2021) · cites this paper as Suyi et al. 2017
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- Authors
- Suyi, Y., Meredith, P., & Khan, A.
- Affiliations
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- Venue
- EXPLORE
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-09
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 319-326
- ISSN
- 1550-8307 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2728562002
- Cited by
- 67
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 5.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- figshare.com
- Licence
- Locations
- EXPLORE (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Acquire (CQUniversity) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
- Keywords
- mindfulness-based interventions, occupational stress, burnout, mental health professionals, compassion, self-compassion, mindfulness training, compassion-focused therapy
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Burnout, Professional, Empathy, Female, Health Personnel, Humans, Male, Mental Health Services, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies, Singapore, Stress, Psychological, Meditation, Mindfulness
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