Is Mental Health Contagious? Depression, Anxiety, Stress and Burnout among Mental health professionals in Sudan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5195/ijms.2025.3761Keywords:
Anxiety, Burnout, Depression, Mental health professionals, StressAbstract
Background: Mental health professionals are more likely to experience mental health problems due to their work environment, Poor management of this can lead to job dissatisfaction, low organizational commitment and high turnover. The goal of this cross-sectional study is to evaluate the mental health of health care professionals working in Khartoum state psychiatric hospitals in order to comprehend effective coping strategies.
Methods: Data was collected through both online and paper questionnaires, and analyzed using SPSS version 25, using descriptive statistics for categorical and continuous data, and inferential tests like Mann Whitney U, Kruskal-Walllis, and Sperman’s correlation. P value < 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: A total of 164 mental health workers participated, majority of participants were female, single, and worked in private institutions for an average of 36-48 hours per week. The study found that participants experienced high levels of stress and personal burnout, with depression and anxiety being negatively correlated with the age of respondents and work-related burnout.
Conclusion: The study suggests that mental health professionals in Sudan are experiencing relatively high levels of depression, stress, anxiety, and burnout. This highlights the need for effective strategies to support the mental well-being of healthcare professionals in this setting.
Table 1. Demographic and Occupational Profile of the Study Sample.
Variable
Total N
%
Gender
Male
68
41.5
Female
96
58.5
Social status
Single
77
47.0
Married
78
47.6
Divorced
7
4.3
Widowed
2
1.2
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