Burnout, social support and AIDS volunteers

Care providers working with people with HIV have shown high levels of burnout (Maslach, 1986) as staff were required to deal with a multi-faceted disease while creating new ways of working with clients. At the same time high burnout levels were also being seen among volunteers who were supplementing the work of paid staff. This paper looks at the impact that social support from agency staff and other volunteers had on the ability of volunteers working at The Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) in New York City to deal with HIV volunteering, the rewards they experienced through volunteering and their experience of burnout.