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Well-being and burnout interventions for frontline homelessness staff: A Scoping Review Protocol
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Description: Homelessness has increased in Europe and the United Kingdom over the past decade, along with the demands on staff working in homelessness services (Tunstall, 2019; FEANTSA and Foundation Abbe Pierre, 2020). With the rising numbers of people experiencing homelessness (PEH), there has been growing recognition that the well-being of frontline homelessness workers is essential in order to provide high-quality care for PEH (eg. Manning & Greenwood, 2018; Lemieux‐Cumberlege & Taylor, 2019; 2019; Gaboardi et al., 2022). Although staff working in the homeless sector often find the work rewarding, it is nevertheless acknowledged to be challenging, with the workforce facing high levels of staff turnover and burnout (Carver et al., 2022). Homelessness practitioners often endure high job demands, limited resources, in addition to physical and emotional health strains (Wirth et al., 2019a). PEH often have complex histories, intertwined with previous or current exposure to trauma, abuse, violence, substance misuse and mental-health concerns. Therefore, staff supporting PEH may be susceptible to vicarious traumatisation or secondary traumatic stress as a result of this exposure to trauma (Waegemakers Schiff & Lane, 2019). Moreover, broader systemic issues, such as resource disparity, insufficient funding, low wages and organisational silos among professional groups, can further hinder the ability of practitioners to provide appropriate biopsychosocial care for PEH (van den Berk-Clark, 2015; Olivet et al., 2010; Lemieux-Cumberlege et al., 2023). While factors contributing to the mental health of frontline homelessness staff are being increasingly researched, little remains known regarding the interventions that have been carried out to address this. Pressing calls to explore this gap have been made (Peters et al., 2021; Wirth et al., 2019b). To move the field forward, an understanding of the existing interventions conducted to date is needed. Therefore, the objective of this scoping review is to map the current literature and identify existing well-being and burnout interventions that have been implemented for staff working in the homeless sector.