The paper offers an overview of the burnout literature connected to work stress and is specially aimed at professionals with responsibilities for persons with intellectual disabilities. In the paper different important key concepts in the burnout literature are both discussed in general terms, and also connected to the different instruments used to assess burnout. The effect of stress and burnout intervention procedures is also discussed thoroughly. At the end of the paper there is an example of an intervention study among staff working with persons with intellectual disabilities. The paper concludes that future progress is to be dependent onempirical tests of theory-based models using research designs that permit causal inferences. In addition there is a growing need for longitudinal designs reporting effects of different intervention approaches, especially among the staff working with persons with intellectual disabilities.