Wellbeing is a topic that can benefit everyone. Whether you’re an educator in a school setting, parenting a teen with a disability, or a healthcare provider, learning wellbeing skills can immediately enhance your outlook on life. Professional conferences like the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) Autism Conference are a great place to spread the word about the benefits of integrating wellbeing practices into the autism community and the world. That’s why Proof Positive joined their partners from the EPIC School to present a poster presentation, Improving Staff Retention Through Wellbeing: Proof of Concept Study, at the recent ABAI Autism Conference in San Diego.
The current educational and disability support workforce is experiencing a crisis in both recruitment and retention. Applying positive psychology interventions has improved job satisfaction for multiple social service professions, including general educators. For example, people who know and use their character strengths (a wellbeing skill) experience greater satisfaction at work, increased productivity and more positive emotions.
The EPIC School and Proof Positive are working together to use evidence-informed practices in positive psychology with the EPIC School’s staff to address this recruitment and retention crisis. Conference attendees were extremely interested in the topic of wellbeing, especially because schools and healthcare providers struggle to recruit professionals and want their teams to be happy in their daily work.
Proof Positive and the EPIC School are just one year into our collaboration, but both organizations are committed to gathering data and evaluating the impact of positive psychology on the wellbeing of staff and students and on staff retention and recruitment. Keep a look out for future conference presentations and data sharing of our success.
