Dealing with Burnout and Stress in the Public Health Workforce: Tips from a Mental Health Professional

• Home
• Articles

Dealing with Burnout and Stress in the Public Health Workforce: Tips from a Mental Health Professional

An interview with Renee Van Meter, L.S.C.S.W., L.C.A.C., Deputy Division Director in Emergency Services at Johnson County Mental Health Center

Transforming Public Health for the 21st Century: Bridging Theory to Practice is a blog series that will explore the challenges and opportunities faced by the public health sector and will introduce innovative ideas and unique voices to support transformation. Sign up here to receive these summaries and more, and also follow KHI on Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Learn more about the series on our blog page. Please feel free to share your feedback or suggestions with us by emailing [email protected].

"What is one thing you wish you had more time to learn about in your work?"

KHI posed this question to recent attendees of the Governor's Public Health Conference. We unearthed an overall theme of dealing with stress, burnout and participants wanting to learn more about supporting their personal well-being while working in public health.

Burnout and the stress that the public health workforce deals with was brought to the forefront of conversations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, becoming a global issue for the public health field. Kansas itself experienced high levels of public health turnover during the pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has noted that burnout among public health workers has remained high even after the pandemic ended, and several new initiatives aim to address this issue.

In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, observed in May, this post discusses burnout and stress rates in public health and strategies to address these issues at multiple levels. It also provides advice from Renee Van Meter, L.S.C.S.W., L.C.A.C., who is the Deputy Division Director in Emergency Services at Johnson County Mental Health Center. She has more than 20 years of experience in the mental health field as a licensed clinician. Since the pandemic, she has become a keynote speaker at conferences and other events discussing this topic, while providing workplace training on how to address these issues.

Current Burnout Rates in the Public Health Workforce

A previous post from this blog discussed public health burnout and highlighted the ongoing challenges for those in this field. This issue is especially prevalent among employees at local health departments, with 7 in 10 having reported experiencing one or more symptoms of burnout. Burnout also affects other public health professionals, with the 2024 PH WINS findings reporting that 1 in 5 experiences near-constant symptoms of burnout.

Although burnout rates may be lower than during the COVID-19 pandemic, the public health workforce has not returned to pre-pandemic levels. This means that as organizations continue to address this issue, they need to cultivate culture and work environments that adapt to the ongoing needs of the workforce, including consideration of shifting priorities, ages and tenure. Younger workers make up a growing share of the public health workforce, with 25 percent being age 35 or younger, bringing different generational preferences and expectations.

Looking to the Future

Generation Z workers are prioritizing stability and well-being in their work, reflecting a growing desire for work-life balance, stability and steady professional growth. Work environments that adapt to these priorities may help address the current rates of burnout, stress and poor mental health in the workforce.

Environmental and occupational factors are among the seven domains of self-care (Figure 1), which represent different areas of life that can need self-care. During the interview, Renee defined self-care as the practice of taking action to protect or improve one's own health. She suggested that individuals can support their own self-care by clarifying what they need and seeking that out. People can also seek support from friends, family, doctors and others.

Figure 1: Domains for Self-Care

Source: Van Meter, R. (2025, July 16). Self Care: We're doing it wrong! Virtual.

Renee described how workers can practice better self-care by identifying the self-domain that is most hurt or damaged, then working to repair or fix it.

When thinking within a framework like the socio-ecological model, improvements that can impact these issues stem from the individual level and move up through relationships, workplace environments, systems that improve access to mental health care, and policies that provide resources and access to those who need it most. While change at higher levels can be difficult, new initiatives and programs have been developed to help address these challenges.

Moving forward, workplace initiatives such as Total Worker Health and policies outlined by the CDC could provide the changes needed at the external level. At the individual level, Renee suggested individuals start by identifying where they are depleted.

Everyday Strategies From a Mental Health Professional

To be able to address problems, Renee said individuals must first discover what they are. She said individuals can use the graphic provided in Figure 1 to think through where they are struggling most and then take action to address the challenges. She also recommended being creative when doing these activities. "It's challenging ourselves to think outside of the box, to ask different questions ─ Should I talk to my doctor? Should I ask about different nutrients or lab levels that I could check?" Renee explained.

Renee recommends individuals think about all the different ways they can change their environments to better suit their own personal needs. "For example, don't sit in a meeting and freeze and be uncomfortable … carry a sweater, keep a jacket in your office or car … take care of yourself," Renee explained. "Because when you're uncomfortable, your executive functioning skills aren't where they need to be."

For more difficult issues, such as challenges in our emotional domain, Renee spoke about Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) practices such as radical acceptance and making sure to understand if an issue falls within an individual's circle of control or their circle of concern (Figure 2). If something is within the circle of concern, but not the circle of control, Renee said finding ways to practice that radical acceptance can help it be less of a challenge for individuals.

Figure 2: Individual's Circle of Control

Source: Van Meter, R. (2025, July 16). Self Care: We're doing it wrong! Virtual.

Renee also suggested using an emotion wheel, a tool that can help people who struggle to find underlying emotions increase their emotional vocabulary, to assist in finding the root cause of an issue.

Lastly, Renee emphasized the importance of finding strategies that fit each individual's circumstances and preferences. One resource that works for her is the Calm app, which can be used for sleep and meditation. She also recommended a three-minute body check-in that includes guided breathing.

Other strategies include meditation, following nutrition guidelines while maintaining balance with items that make you happy (such as a piece of dark chocolate each night), staying physically active, and being mindfully present as much as possible.

Self-care can be difficult, but Renee as said, "You wouldn't let the battery run out on your phone, so don't let it happen to you either."

If you or someone you know needs support now, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. Learn more about the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in Kansas.

Burnout Is a Systems Problem Too

This post focuses on what individuals can do to protect their own well-being. But burnout is not primarily an individual failure. It is a systems problem, and fixing it requires changes at the organizational and systems levels - not just better coping strategies for workers.

Public health leaders have a responsibility to create work environments where people can thrive. KHI has developed resources to support that work:

• The Time for Change is Now: Public Health's Burnout Battle - an overview of burnout as a systemic threat to the public health workforce.
• Organizational Solutions for Burnout in Public Health -strategies for public health leaders to build a culture of well-being at the team, organizational, and systems levels
• Public Health Employee Well-Being Assessment Guide - a practical toolkit for assessing workforce well-being, diagnosing organizational challenges, and equipping managers to better support their teams

Individual tools matter. So does changing the conditions that make those tools necessary in the first place.