Background: The present paper reviews staff stress, burnout and job satisfaction. Methods: A longitudinal, quasi experimental study was carried out among staff working with people with intellectual disabilities in two municipalities in Norway. The purpose was to measure mean differences of stress, burnout and job satisfaction after different intervention approaches were applied to staff in one of the municipalities. Staff in the other municipality acted as a control group. Results: Using the pretest score as the covariate, by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), the experimental group showed a significant (P less than 0.05) reduction in stress and exhaustion, and a strong significant rise in job satisfaction after intervention. Conclusions: This was a sufficiently promising result to encourage further research, not only to promote the individual worker's health and well being, but also to ensure the health and well being of those for whom services are provided.