Social worker trauma: Building resilience in child protection social workers

Abstract

Child protection social workers can experience psychological trauma effects as a result of their work. This article considers the utility of the trauma perspective in understanding and intervening when overwhelming events impact social workers. Psychological trauma theory enhances earlier contributions of the stress and burnout literatures in the effort to increase the efficacy and well‐being of child protection staff. Resilience theories are relied upon to develop strategies for promoting optimal effectiveness of social workers who remain exposed to potentially traumatizing events.