Speaker 1: We are back here at four with a problem solvers health alert for you this afternoon after two years of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. A study from the American Psychological Association finding 79% of workers experienced job related stress in the past month. Before the pandemic even started, the World Health Organization took the steps of defining burnout. They defined it as a syndrome associated with chronic stress at work that often goes unmanaged. So we are now in mental health awareness month. We want to bring some attention to burnout and how we can help you out at home. So Kaylee Grimes is a therapeutic caseworker at Denver Health. So thank you for being here this afternoon. So we heard the official definition from the World Health Organization. But can you define for us at home in layman's terms?

Speaker 2: What is burnout? So burnout is a state of emotional and mental physical exhaustion due to prolonged stress, usually related to work. And we know a

Speaker 1: lot of people have probably experienced this before. 79% as we heard. What about the pandemic has heightened that? Do you think? I would say about the

Speaker 2: pandemic, it's so much stress. I always say being just a regular human being is really stressful. So adding on, we call like a global trauma of COVID-19 is just another factor that adds on to that stress and debating. Are you gonna stay home for work? Are you gonna go in? Are you gonna get sick? There's just so many factors now when it comes to work that's outside of just regular work

Speaker 1: stress. And even just leaving the house, people were scared at one point. So talk about the symptoms. How do you know if you're feeling burnt out? Is there different levels of it? And what should you be concerned? Yeah, there's three

Speaker 2: clinical, um, aspects to look out for burnout, which would be, um, it would be like exhaustion, that depletion of energy, which is a big one that prolonged stress, um, and cynicism. So that would feel like if you're feeling cynical towards work. I know some people might laugh at that, but it's like, um, and also the indifference. So if you're just feeling like disconnected from work as well as inefficiency. So feeling like you're having reduced measured

Speaker 1: outcomes at work. So is there any way to physically recover from this? Or how do you take steps to prevent it or maybe get a little bit better or positive?

Speaker 2: Yeah, there are a couple ways. The one that I would say is like the first thing that comes to mind is taking time off. We know that's not super accessible to some people. So, um, besides just taking time off work for yourself, really prioritizing self-care, which people talk a lot about, but prioritizing that, doing things that are important to you, having healthy work-life boundaries, and knowing are you thinking about work or talking about work when you're off? Are you checking your emails when you're off? Just kind of making that separation very clear and finding things maybe in your work that you value, that align with your values, that can really reinvigorate like your meaning and work and you really find, yeah, that joy back into it if it aligns with your personal

Speaker 1: values. A lot of people take work home with them. I think like you said, it's important to have that healthy balance of separating work and separating home life.