"We're in this together:" Exploring how mental health professionals experience resilience and the role of social identity process

Mental health professionals are known to work in challenging and often stressful environments. Prior to the added complication of Covid-19 to service provision, burnout had been identified as an emergent critical issue in this context. This thesis sought to address a gap in the literature by clarifying the conceptual underpinnings of resilience in mental health service provision by investigating mental health professionals’ experience of resilience in their practice, and exploring the role of social identity processes therein. To address the aims of this thesis, a two-study approach was taken. Study 1 is a systematic review of qualitative empirical literature on mental health professionals’ experiences of resilience in their practice. Twenty six papers were included in the final review. Resilience was conceptualised as a dynamic, interactive phenomenon that is heavily influenced by social connection. Study 2 is a qualitative study exploring the influence of social identity processes on staff working in Irish regional approved centres during the Covid-19 crisis. Seventeen participants were interviewed in this study. Findings support conceptualisations of resilience as flexible and multidimensional in the context of mental health service provision, contingent on the dynamic interplay between multiple interconnected factors. Practitioners describe resilience as a shared process that occurs in relationship within a social ecological context. This thesis proposes that social identity can offer a useful theoretical framework for understanding the group dimension of resilience processes in mental health settings, wherein the application of social identity theory can provide an underlying explanation of how group identification can both strengthen and undermine collective resilience in a crisis. This thesis highlights the conceptual compatibility of resilience and social identity theory as both may represent complementary pathways to practitioner wellbeing that can help foster positive outcomes for staff, service users, and mental healthcare systems.