A Well-Being Program Grounded in Caring: Increasing Staff Satisfaction

Over the last few decades, there has been a growing concern over the shortage and training of
behavioral healthcare workers in the United States and more so over mental health workers'
retention. Publicly funded mental health institutions have been the most affected by the high
turnover rate of mental health staff, which increases operational costs by continually hiring and
training new staff. Besides increasing health care costs, the high turnover rate creates an unstable
work environment that negatively impacts the quality of care. However, when employees are
empowered to do their job and care for themselves, they are more likely to experience overall
satisfaction and be committed to their organization. Many authors suggest that providing
ongoing training to help employees adapt to their daily routine and create a caring environment
positively impacts job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Therefore, organizations
must implement strategies to enhance employee work experience, satisfaction, and retention.
This paper intends to present a unique evidence-based training strategy to improve mental health
workers' caring behaviors and work experience. Analysis of this quality improvement project's
quantitative results, its evaluation, and practice recommendations are addressed.