How the wellbeing of addiction practitioners is affected by their professional practice.

Addiction practitioners in New Zealand work alongside those who are experiencing a range of addictions, as well as those who care for them, to assist in making recovery for clients possible. While the impact of professional practice on the wellbeing of healthcare professionals has been well researched, there has been insufficient attention paid to roles which are addiction specific. This research investigates how the wellbeing of addiction practitioners may be affected by their professional practice, using Te Whare Tapa Wha as the framework for understanding individual health and wellbeing. The focus of this study is to understand how addiction practitioners consider their wellbeing has changed since working as a practitioner. It sets out to do this by applying the Te Whare Tapa Wha model of health developed by Durie (1984) and using the indicators developed by Durie and Kingi (1997) to identify data related to each dimension of Te Whare Tapa Wha. This research uses a questionnaire method, administering twenty-two questions to a sample of registered addiction practitioners in New Zealand. A pragmatic stance was selected for this study. The findings indicate that addiction practitioners in this sample have experienced changes in their health since becoming employed as an addiction practitioner, in relation to the dimensions of Te Whare Tapa Wha. Within this small sample, responses appeared to indicate that length of service may impact on practitioner wellbeing in a variety of ways, which is an area for further research. The qualitative findings of this research illustrated the quantitative responses. The low response rate for the questionnaire leads to a high non-response bias, which is noted as a limitation. Recommendations from this research include the development of an addiction practitioner’s wellness monitoring tool, addiction practitioner specific education and development opportunities, and the implementation of wellbeing plans for practitioners even before professional practice commences. Additional recommendations include the increased organisational promotion of employee assistance/employee wellness programmes, further exploration of the impact of employment in addiction services on those who are attempting to sustain their own recovery from addiction and assessing the effectiveness of clinical supervision on the wellbeing of addiction practitioners.