Association of Personal Distress With Burnout,Compassion Fatigue,and Compassion Satisfaction Among Clinical Social Workers

ABSTRACT

Studies of empathy and empathy-related responding show that while some people respond to observing the suffering of another with a prosocial concern and urge to help the suffering person, others have an aversive, avoidant response that is primarily self-focused and aimed toward relieving their own distress rather than helping the other person. This self-focused response, labeled personal distress, is associated with various social and psychological problems. This article discusses the concept of personal distress and describes a study of licensed clinical social workers (n = 171) that examines the relationship of personal distress and three other aspects of the empathy construct with compassion fatigue, burnout, and compassion satisfaction. Results of ordinary least squares multiple regression analyses indicate that the model of empathy components and control variables explain 20% to 23% of the variance in the dependent variables. Personal distress is the only component of the empathy construct with significant associations with the dependent variables. Higher personal distress is associated with higher compassion fatigue and burnout and lower compassion satisfaction among clinical social workers. Implications for future research and for social work education are discussed.     

Intention to Leave the Profession: Welfare Social Workers Compared to Health Care and Community Social Workers in Israel

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to compare specific work related-factors (personal factor: length of work experience; structural factors: personal subjection to violence and fear of being subjected to violence; and psychological factors: professional quality of life—compassion satisfaction, burnout, and compassion fatigue) between welfare social workers (SWs) (n = 200) and health care and community SWs (n = 173). Furthermore, since the issue of turnover among SWs has important implications for the provision and programming of social services, the study also aimed to assess the relationship between these factors and SW intention to leave the profession. For the purpose of this study, online questionnaires were distributed to SWs working at social agencies and services. The findings suggest that the two categories of SWs showed a similarity with regard to the association between the personal and structural factors and intention to leave the profession. However, with regard to the psychological factors, the components of professional quality of life were found to operate differently in each category of SWs. It is suggested that future research examine other work-related factors and explore the intention to leave the profession among other social work specializations and employment sectors.     

Compassion Satisfaction Among Social Work Practitioners: The Role of Work–Life Balance

Abstract

Previous research has established that social work practitioners are especially vulnerable to work-related psychological distress and burnout due to the high-stress nature of the profession, yet less research has focused on examining factors are associated with social worker retention. Emerging research on compassion satisfaction suggests that this factor could mitigate professional burnout, yet there is a gap in research focusing explicitly on examining compassion satisfaction among social workers. To address this gap in knowledge, this quantitative study collected survey data on practicing social workers who were alumni from a large southeastern university (n?=?120) to examine individual and organizational factors associated with compassion satisfaction. Multiple regression analyses revealed that higher levels of emotional intelligence, perceived work autonomy, and perceived work–life balance were associated with an increase in compassion satisfaction among experienced, licensed social work practitioners. Findings have implications for how social work employers can promote compassion satisfaction through cultivating emotional intelligence among practitioners, allowing social workers autonomy in decision making, and providing supportive work environments. Recommended directions for future research include longitudinal studies with large sample sizes that expound research on compassion satisfaction by examining the role of additional factors, such as client population, job role characteristics, and supervisor support.     

The Work Experiences of Social Workers: Factors Impacting Compassion Satisfaction and Workplace Stress

Abstract

In 2015, over 6,000 licensed social workers in 13?US states responded to an online survey regarding perceptions and feelings about their work, as well as numerous personal and practice issues. Specifically, this study examined participants’ levels of compassion satisfaction and workplace stress, and then determined through multivariate analyses what demographic factors, behavioral and physical health problems, practice issues, fields of practice, and workplace environment issues impacted these two variables.

The findings indicate that participants demonstrated high levels of compassion satisfaction, with a wide range of workplace stress levels. Workplace environment issues had the greatest impact on both variables, with social workers’ mental health problems, physical health status, and certain demographic factors such as race also influencing them. Over 82% of respondents expressed agreement that they were glad that they chose social work as a profession. The results appear to demonstrate that despite being a potentially stressful occupation, licensed social workers tend to experience significant emotional satisfaction from their work. On the other hand, the results also highlight the need for further research to determine how to enhance support for social workers in the workplace in order to not only reduce workplace stress, but also to increase compassion satisfaction.     

Strengthening the Professional Selves of Social Workers Through the Lens of Self Psychology

New social workers have been shown to experience higher rates of burnout, vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and vocational turnover. It is critical to find ways to support the growth and development of competent and resilient social workers. Yet, due to current contextual issues in the workplace, social workers are often not in environments that are conducive to fostering the growth of strong professional selves. A self psychology lens is used to assess and form the basis for recommendations for agencies/organizations and individuals to strengthen the professional selves of individual social workers and, in turn, the profession itself.     

Dare to Care: Exploring the Relationships between Socio-Moral Climate,Perceived Stress,and Work Engagement in a Social Service Agency

Abstract

Human service professionals working in an interpersonal violence social service agency are at increased risk of experiencing emotional burnout, compassion fatigue, and high levels of stress, which may reduce work engagement, increase turnover, and ultimately negatively affect client outcomes. However, a positive organizational climate has the potential to buffer the negative effects of perceived stress on work engagement. Socio-moral climate is a behavioral-based organizational construct that assumes that workplace practices and procedures can impact employees’ attitudes and behaviors. This exploratory study (N?=?41) investigates the relationships between perceived stress, work engagement, and socio-moral climate in a social service agency serving survivors of interpersonal violence, comparing employees with direct interactions with clients in a shelter to those with indirect contact at a different location. Results of moderation analyses show that socio-moral climate significantly predicts higher work engagement, while perceived stress is negatively associated with work engagement; however, the interaction effect was not significant and there were no differences in perceived stress between both employees. Further research should continue to investigate the role of socio-moral climate on employee work engagement in social service agencies, which could improve the quality of services for their clients.     

Moral distress among social workers: The role of insufficient resources

The present study examined moral distress among Finnish social workers and the role of perceived resource insufficiencies in explaining it. The aim was to shed light on this understudied phenomenon in the field of social welfare. The study focused on work‐related moral distress, defined as impaired wellbeing that is connected to the continual inability to implement actions that one considers morally appropriate. The survey data were collected with an electronic questionnaire between the years 2011 and 2012. The respondents (n = 817) were social workers in the public social welfare services and the overall response rate was 46.5 per cent. Nearly 11 per cent of the respondents reported experiencing moral distress and perceived resource insufficiencies strongly explained this experience. Moreover, social workers with moral distress reported that they were less willing to continue in their post, were more frequently on sick leave and had positive work‐related experiences less often than their colleagues who did not experience moral distress. Key Practitioner Message: ● The concept of moral distress is useful in describing the experiences of social welfare workers when they are unable to practise their profession according to their moral code and the emotional burden related to this inability; ● Perceived resource insufficiencies are strongly associated with experiences of moral distress among frontline social workers; ● Social workers experiencing moral distress are less willing to continue in their work, take sick leave more often and less frequently have positive experiences related to their work.     

Preventive therapy and resilience promotion: an evaluation of social work led skills development group work

Concerns have been expressed for some time about a decline in emphasis on therapeutic work in social work, notably articulated in the Munro Review. Further concerns have been expressed in child care that social workers have increasingly had to focus on child protection work rather than earlier stages of prevention. However, there remain opportunities for social workers through the development of new programmes. One development has been that of Behaviour and Education Support Teams: multi‐professional teams, containing as a key element social workers, and encouraging novel practices designed to help emotional stability and improved behaviour and education performance. This study reports on an evaluation of a social worker delivered school‐based social skills programme, which can contribute to the important area of resilience. This showed significant and sustained improvements in pro‐social behaviour and friendships. The implications of this for the therapeutic potential and professional role of social work are discussed.     

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Bipolar Disorder: Implications for Clinical Social Workers

ABSTRACT

The purposes of this review article are to orient clinical social workers to cognitive-behavioral theory, intervention, and research on bipolar disorder (BD); identify pros and cons of applying cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) to social work clients with BD; and identify specific implications for clinical social work practice. Of the 545 articles that were obtained via the systematic review, 18 studies were identified as being potentially eligible for inclusion, and 9 of those studies ultimately satisfied the inclusion criteria. The results of each study were summarized via identifying statistically significant (p< .05) differences that existed between experimental cohorts who received CBT (plus pharmacotherapy) and control cohorts who received treatment as usual. Outcomes showed CBT cohorts as having significant improvement over their respective control groups. The review's implications for clinical social workers and the need for future research are discussed.     

The Compassion Fatigue Scale: Its Use With Social Workers Following Urban Disaster

OBJECTIVE: The present study has two goals: to assess the difference between secondary trauma and job burnout and to examine the utility of secondary trauma in predicting psychological distress. METHOD: The data come from a survey of social workers (N = 236) living in New York City 20 months following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC). RESULTS: Social workers' involvement in WTC recovery efforts is related to secondary trauma but not burnout. Analyses also reveal that both secondary trauma and burnout are related to psychological distress after controlling for other risk factors. CONCLUSION: This study supports the importance of compassion fatigue as a risk factor for social workers counseling traumatized clients and its association with psychological problems.     

Change for children? The challenges and opportunities for the children’s social work workforce

Children’s services are currently undergoing their biggest changes in a generation. The government is seeking to create a more coherent, seamless configuration of services, with a view to securing improved outcomes for all children. However, there is a current crisis in the recruitment and retention of a range of child welfare professionals, including children’s social workers, which must be addressed in order for this ambitious agenda to be achieved. This paper discusses the findings of a series of focus group discussions with social workers undertaking the London Post Qualifying Child Care Award in response to the Children’s Workforce Strategyconsultation process. These findings are then analysed within the context of the wider literature on social work practice and workforce development. It is argued that central to the debate on how to sustain a competent and stable social work workforce should be consideration of the consequences of initiatives to audit and assess performance; the promotion of relationship‐based social work; and the wider role of social work in preventative and protective services for children.     

The Role of Family in Career Choices among Social Workers in China

Abstract

High turnover rate affects social work workforce development in China. Few empirical studies have been conducted to explore the factors that have influences on turnover intention among Chinese social workers. This study used data from China General Survey on Professional Social Workers to examine the influence of job satisfaction and family attitude on social workers’ career choices. The findings reveal that both job satisfaction and family’ attitude toward the profession have significant effects on social workers’ turnover intention. Family’s support or disapproval of the social work profession has moderate effect on the negative correlation between job satisfaction and turnover intention. The findings could be explained by the familyism culture of Chinese society and unique challenges of professional development experienced by social workers in China. Future studies should consider the influence of family to develop a more comprehensive research framework. Management in social service agencies should help family of social workers to learn and embrace the profession to gain their support of choosing social work as career.     

"Never right, never wrong": child welfare and social work in England and Sweden

When are parents “unfit” to care for their own children? As in many other countries, social workers in England and Sweden have the unenviable task of forming such judgments. On behalf of society at large, social workers must balance the rights of parents to provide continuing care with the responsibilities of the state in ensuring adequate care of children. They are involved in professional judgments which are also inherently political. In both England and Sweden social workers are able to seek legal orders which, if granted, permit compulsory removal of children against the wishes of parents. In such cases social workers are centrally involved in processes which remove ordinary rights of citizenship from their fellow members of society. The rights of parents and children, together with the responsibilities of the state to each class of citizen, are clearly in focus: intervention in family life requires both grounds and legitimation. But what is the basis of intervention in the two societies? Social work practices in Sweden and England suggest very different answers to this question. In explaining these differences it is necessary to address much broader variations of social and political culture in the two societies. In so doing, variations in social work practice can be located in different cultural values and systems of legitimation. Instabilities and pathologies of professional practices can also be identified within both England and Sweden. These too are quite different in the two societies.     

Raising awareness of transformative ecosocial work: Participatory action research with Australian practitioners

This article reports on Participatory Action Research with social work practitioners who collaboratively explored the effects on professional practice when practitioners raise their awareness of an ecosocial work approach. Although contemporary research in the profession has contributed to the ongoing development of ecosocial work, there is a notable lack of collaboration with social work practitioners. Using a transformative ecosocial work model of practice, researchers together with social workers from a range of practice contexts met as co‐inquirers to plan, implement and evaluate ecosocial work interventions. As part of a larger international study, this article reports on research outcomes within the Australian context. Overall, results indicate that practitioners incorporated interventions across personal, individual, group and organisational levels of practice, but were constrained by structural elements at broader levels. Continuing the development of ecosocial work requires further collaborative exploration with practitioners, which takes into consideration communities and broader social and political systems. Key Practitioner Messages: ? This research endeavours to contribute to the evidence‐base for progressing transformative ecosocial work in professional practice; ? Using Participatory Action Research (PAR), this research was done in collaboration with social work practitioners as co‐inquirers to develop ecosocial work interventions; ? A range of ecosocial work interventions were implemented at the personal, individual, group and organisational levels.     

Advance Care Planning in the Delivery of Adult Protective Services

ABSTRACT

In ensuring the safety and protection of older adults from abuse and exploitation, adult protective services (APS) workers face a variety of situations involving serious illness and end-of-life conditions. Many older adults encountered in APS will present with one or more chronic conditions that may warrant discussion of advance care planning with clients and their families. This study surveyed APS workers (n = 508) in 21 states regarding encounters with end-of-life situations and the practice of future care planning. Results revealed that three-fourths of APS workers encounter clients with serious illnesses and about two-thirds do discuss planning in advance for care. More than one-half of the respondents indicated client incapacity and refusal to address future care needs as barriers to discussing planning in advance for care. Recommendations to enhance advance care planning among APS workers are discussed.     

A Definition of Social Work for Practice

Australian and international discussions of the broad mission of social work, of its underlying premise that the personal is political, that it is responsive and able to take a leadership role from a clear value base, are sophisticated debates that demonstrate the vitality, dynamism, and enthusiasm of a profession cognizant of changes and challenges occurring outside it. However such developments and considerations are possibly most meaningful for those social workers who are either very clear about what social work is or who are not daily confronted with challenges to explain or account for their profession in performance-driven agency contexts. This article proposes a simple definition of social work which, while cognizant of the theoretical developments occurring both in and outside the profession, presents the profession in a way that clearly articulates what it is that social workers do.     

Social workers' attitudes towards social welfare policy

As social workers are widely called upon to take an active role in influencing social welfare policy, a better understanding of their views on the welfare state is crucial. This study examines the attitudes of 422 Israeli social workers from diverse social welfare agencies regarding social welfare policy. The framework for understanding these attitudes includes the notions of professionalisation processes, social work values, and the class position of social workers. The study's findings indicate that support for the welfare state is quite moderate and these reflect more the class affiliation of social workers than their professional values and the professionalisation process.     

Social Workers and Policy- Practice: The Role of Social and Professional Values

ABSTRACT

Although policy practice is regarded as an essential component of social work, the actual involvement of social workers in policy practice is apparently very limited. This article presents the findings of a study that seeks to explore the role of social and professional values in support by social workers in Israel for engagement in policy practice and their actual involvement in this type of practice. The findings indicate that socioeconomic orientations and professional values have an impact on social worker's perception of policy practice and the degree to which they are actually involved in the social welfare policy process. In particular, it was found that attitudes toward social justice played a major role in the social worker's perceptions of, and involvement in, policy practice.