“Preventing carer burnout” (2007) is a UNAIDS Best Practice Collection case study of the Inter-Mission Care and Rehabilitation Society (IMCARES) Mumbai, India.

Burnout is not a single event but a process in which everyday stresses and anxieties that are not addressed gradually undermine carers’ mental and physical health, so that eventually care giving and personal relationships suffer. Burnout is the final stage in the stress process when everything falls apart. As a medical condition, burnout has no clear definition, but as a psychological condition it has been well defined and is increasingly recognized by people in the caring professions.

Burnout has long been identified as a crucial issue in HIV care and support yet there is relatively little known about what measures can be taken to prevent or mitigate it. This document looks at how carer burnout can be avoided. It focuses on the approach used by an evangelical faith-based organization, Inter-Mission Care and Rehabilitation Society (IMCARES), Mumbai, India, to care for their staff and volunteers employed in their programs and as carers in the community.

Their strategy and practice may provide useful lessons in caring for carers for both secular and faith-based organizations working with people living with and affected by HIV. Available in English (711KB) at: www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/Resources/Publications/bestPracticesArchivePage1.asp