Associations between emotional exhaustion, social capital, workload, and latitude in decision-making among professionals working with people with disabilities.

Background: Many people working in human services in Western countries suffer from burnout, characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and decreased personal performance. Prevention of emotional exhaustion (the first phase of burnout) constitutes a great challenge because emotional exhaustion may cause increasing turnover rates in staff and lead to a lesser quality of care. Prevention of emotional exhaustion requires knowledge of its predictors.