Supervisors info:
Ιγνατία Φαρμακοπούλου, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Επιστημών της Εκπαίδευσης και Κοινωνικής Εργασίας, Πανεπιστήμιο Πατρών, Επιβλέπουσα
Γεράσιμος Κολαΐτης, Ομότιμος Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Γεώργιος Γιαννακόπουλος, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
Background: Maternal substance use is associated with negative effects for both mothers and their children. The need to support and improve their quality of life is a great challenge for mental health professionals, who work with such cases. Professionals are invited to take part in an Inter-professional and Inter-disciplinary Collaboration in order to provide holistic support to them. However, burnout is an obstacle to their work, while mental resilience is a positive factor. A study on this scientific field is expected to contribute significantly to the existing literature.
Aim: This study aims to investigate and evaluate the existing collaborative relationships at an inter-disciplinary and inter-agency level that govern mental health professionals in supporting addicted mothers and their children.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 91 mental health professionals from a total of 12 relevant Agencies, to whom an improvised questionnaire regarding socio-demographic data, Inter-professional and Inter-disciplinary Collaboration, addicted mothers and their children and professionals' perceptions, the Maslach Burnout Inventory-MBI-22 and the Resilience Evaluation Scale – RES were distributed electronically.
Results: The good collaborative relationships of professionals and the profile of addicted mothers and their children referred for treatment emerged from the analyses. Correlations of age with Resilience (rho=.234, p=0.006) and Burnout dimensions, i.e. emotional exhaustion (rho=-.330, p=0.001), depersonalization (rho=-.312, p= 0.003) and personal achievements (rho=.218, p=0.038). Demographic factors such as gender (β=7.603, p=0.016), age (β=3.886, p=0.003), years of service (β=0.475, p=0.037) and incident management effectiveness (β= 1.292, p=0.008), were shown to contribute to the variability of burnout and resilience dimensions.
Conclusions: From the study it emerged that Inter-professional and Inter-disciplinary Collaboration is satisfactory for case management of addicted mothers and their children. Resilience enhances collaboration and efficiency, while burnout is at low levels among professionals.
Keywords:
Inter-professional, Inter-disciplinary collaboration, Αddicted mothers, Children, Mental health professionals
