Abstract
Social workers have become one of the leading professions delivering behavioral health services in the United States. However, many social workers leave the profession within the first one to three years post graduation. One of the contributors to high turnover is occupational burnout. This qualitative study examined the (micro, mezzo, and macro level) conditions that contribute to or ameliorate occupational burnout among social workers who provide behavioral health services. A phenomenological approach focused on how social workers made meaning of the multidimensional influences impacting occupational burnout and their work. I utilized purposive sampling to identify and interview 17 social workers, from the New York City metropolitan area. Through interpretative phenomenological data analysis, relying on deductive and inductive approaches, I identified six major themes:a; (1) personal experiences with occupational burnout, (2) the complex job responsibilities of a social worker, (3) organizational challenges impacting employee functioning, (4) federal politics impacting the practice of social work, (5) external perceptions of social work as a profession, and (6) possible solutions to better support behavioral health social workers in human service organizations.