Agency Support for Self-care and Burnout among Licensed Social Workers

Social workers often work in stressful environments and experience secondary trauma through their clients. An examination of the available literature has found that social workers experience symptoms of burnout. Previous research also indicated that self-care is beneficial to decreasing stress levels in social workers. In this study, a quantitative and qualitative survey was distributed to licensed social workers in the state of Minnesota examining burnout and self-care within the context of the social work agency. Quantitative data was evaluated using descriptive and inferential statistics. Qualitative data was analyzed and coded using grounded theory methodology. There were no significant quantitative findings. Qualitative findings were congruent with current research on contributing factors to self-care and burnout; themes of support and flexibility to support social workers in maintaining self-care and combating burnout were prevalent in qualitative findings. Future more extensive research can be done to better operationalize the components of a work environment that is supportive of self-care. Running head: AGENCY SUPPORT SELF-CARE 4 Acknowledgments I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the licensed social workers in the state of Minnesota who participated in my study; without their willingness to open up about their lives and contribute this study would not have been possible. I would like to give acknowledgement to the University of St. Thomas Internal Review Board for making it possible to conduct this research. I want to express a tremendous amount of gratitude to Dr. Lance Peterson for his patience, support, and encouragement throughout this research process. I would like to thank my committee members as well; Allison Jordan and Richard Huynh provided me with great guidance and encouragement throughout this process. I would also like to thank my parents Jim Wyman and Norah Wyman, as well as my fiancé Brian Harden for their support, without which I would not have been able to complete this research. Finally, I would like to dedicate this research to my grandmothers Katie Clark and Midge Wyman. They guided and inspired me to serve and care for others, and I would not be a social worker today without their nurturing. Running head: AGENCY SUPPORT SELF-CARE 5 Agency Support for Self-care and Burnout among Licensed Social Workers Social workers face their daily stressors and can experience secondary trauma through exposure to the trauma of their clients, which can lead to burnout and a decrease in social workers’ commitment to the profession. According to Cox (2013) work related stress has the potential to take a serious toll on the well-being of social workers in all aspects of their lives. There are many different definitions for self-care and within a more general definition of selfcare there are many different sub categories, including: physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual, professional, and balance. Cox (2013) also cites a 2011 national poll which was conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA); results of which were that 36 percent of workers experienced regular work related stress. The same study indicated that 43% of employees were concerned about heavy workloads, 40% had concerns about unrealistic expectations of their job, and 39% reported that working long hours contributed to stress. The work-related satisfaction of helping people, achieving change and improvement, and promoting their growth has an impact on the behavior of social workers and their desire for continuing in their work. Acker (1999) suggests that work related or job satisfaction is important. Acker defined job satisfaction as the positive emotional state which was a result of the appraisal of one’s job and considered to be linked with characteristics of the demands placed on the employee. Chronic stress has been identified as something that can lead to frequent burnout. Acker (1999) has defined burnout as job-related stresses causing a reaction of negative psychological experience. Symptoms which this article attributed to burnout were physical, emotional, and interactional in nature and included but were not limited to feeling emotionally exhausted, depersonalizing clients, and a lack of sense of personal accomplishment. Burnout was also Running head: AGENCY SUPPORT SELF-CARE 6 defined in a 2008 article by Kim and Stoner focusing on burnout and its relation to turnover, which cites Maslach and Jackson’s (1986) conceptualization of burnout. Kim and Stoner introduce Maslach and Jackson’s conceptualization of burnout as having the same three components referenced in Acker (1999) of experiencing emotional exhaustion, depersonalizing clients, and lacking a sense of personal accomplishment. Kim and Stoner indicated that much of the research on burnout since Maslach and Jackson (1986) has adopted their conceptualization of burnout (Kim & Stoner, 2008). Social workers who are experiencing burnout by definition have a lower level of job satisfaction, since those who have better job satisfaction feel that they are helping to achieve change and those who are experiencing burnout have a sense of lacking personal accomplishment. Cox (2013) suggests that abundant research has linked burnout to turnover or intent to leave in social work jobs. Self-care has the potential to alleviate stress and combat potential burnout. Cox (2013) has defined self-care as deliberate choices that the professional makes to respond mentally, emotionally and behaviorally to stress; as well as steps taken in a social-worker’s life to improve physical and mental health and well-being. According to Collins (2005), self-care has major implications on the professional, including that professionals are less able to provide care for others if they have not first met their own need. Collins further expresses that it is a responsibility as professionals that we ensure that we are capable of providing our clients with the best possible care by caring for ourselves. “We demand that clients take charge of their lives by addressing disruptive and troublesome practices. So, too, shall we demand it of ourselves” (Collins, 2005, P. 272). The purpose of this study is to examine how the culture of a social service agency impacts the self-care of licensed social workers. In order to examine this topic this study will look at Running head: AGENCY SUPPORT SELF-CARE 7 social workers’ practice of self-care within the context of their agency, and to what degree they are experiencing burnout, in order to ask the question: is there a relation between agency support and self-care, burnout and self-care, and the degree to which the type of agency impacts burnout among social workers? Literature Review Burnout Gaining an understanding of burnout is an important first step in learning about the concept of burnout and its impact on social workers. Baker (2007) conceptualized burnout as psychological distress which can be related to work and suggested it was composed of three factors: emotional exhaustion, depersonalizing clients, and a low sense of accomplishment. “Emotional exhaustion is operationalized as feeling emotionally drained and depleted. Depersonalization refers to feeling emotionally distant from one’s clients, and low personal accomplishment entails not meeting ones work related goals” (Baker, 2007, P. 465). This definition is in line with that featured in previous research including Acker (1999), and supports the assertion by Kim & Stoner (2008) of this conceptualization of burnout which was originally introduced by Maslach and Jackson (1986), and has been widely adopted in future research that addresses burnout (Kim &Stoner, 2008). A tool called the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory has been utilized to measure burnout across a number of professions. Borritz (2006) studied human service workers; they were given the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory in order to explore levels of burnout between human service professionals who do different types of work within the human service field. In this study human service professionals included a wide array of positions both in positions traditionally considered social work and medical positions. This study made use of scale questions to Running head: AGENCY SUPPORT SELF-CARE 8 categorize a measure of burnout in areas of personal burnout, work-related burnout, and client related burnout. The study found that there was an important differentiation between client related burnout and work related burnout. Occupations that rated high in both client and work related burnout were workers in institutions for the chronically disabled, midwives, social security service social workers, and urban homecare workers. These positions tended to have higher demands placed on them by clients based on their own reporting at baseline. Burnout is something that research has shown is experienced by social workers whether it is the experience of all or some of the components of the widely accepted definition (Acker, 1999; Baker, 2007). Burnout has also been shown to have an impact on job satisfaction or the positive emotions one associates with their job (Borritz, 2006; Kristensen, 2005). Further there has been some research that has indicated a correlation between the experience of burnout and job attendance which has implications for the quality of service provided to clients (Kristensen, 2005). In an additional study that supports that burnout has an impact on professionals in mental health fields, Craig (2010) states that work-related stress has an adverse effect on those in helping professions leading to the previously defined components of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feeling that the work that is being done does not have an impact. Job Satisfaction Job satisfaction is something that research has shown to be impacted by burnout. Butler (1990) as cited by Agresta (2006) concluded that job satisfaction is import