A Self-Care Framework for Social Workers: Building a Strong Foundation for Practice

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Abstract

Self-care is widely recognized as critical to social work practice, yet little empirical support or practical guidance exists in the literature to steer social workers in its implementation. Self-care may not only be crucial in preventing secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and high staff turnover, but it can serve as a means of empowerment that enables practitioners to proactively and intentionally negotiate their overall health, well-being, and resilience. The purpose of this article is threefold: (a) to explore current conceptualizations of self-care; (b) to provide a clear conceptual definition of and an applied framework for self-care; and (c) to explicate the utility of this framework for social work practitioners, students, educators, and social service agencies' supervisors and administrators.

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Most cited references 28

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Compassion fatigue: psychotherapists' chronic lack of self care.

Charles R Figley (2002)

Psychotherapists who work with the chronic illness tend to disregard their own self-care needs when focusing on the needs of clients. The article discusses the concept of compassion fatigue, a form of caregiver burnout among psychotherapists and contrasts it with simple burnout and countertransference. It includes a multi-factor model of compassion fatigue that emphasizes the costs of caring, empathy, and emotional investment in helping the suffering. The model suggests that psychotherapists that limiting compassion stress, dealing with traumatic memories, and more effectively managing case loads are effective ways of avoiding compassion fatigue. The model also suggests that, to limit compassion stress, psychotherapists with chronic illness need to development methods for both enhancing satisfaction and learning to separate from the work emotionally and physically in order to feel renewed. A case study illustrates how to help someone with compassion fatigue. Copyright 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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A Study of the Relationship Between Self-Care, Compassion Satisfaction, Compassion Fatigue, and Burnout Among Hospice Professionals

Randall S. Davies, Karen Alkema, Jeremy Linton (2008)

Hospice care professionals (HCPs) experience a large number of stressors in their work settings. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-care, compassion fatigue, burnout, and compassion satisfaction among HCPs. Thirty-seven HCPs were surveyed regarding their levels of compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and burnout. Respondents also reported the types of self-care activities in which they took part. Results indicated a relationship between self-care strategies and lower levels of burnout and compassion fatigue, and higher levels of compassion satisfaction. Several suggestions are offered for continued research and practice in the hospice care field.