This document discusses stress and stress reduction strategies for social workers. It notes that social work can be stressful due to the nature of the work dealing with traumatic cases, high caseloads, and role conflicts. Common stress reduction strategies mentioned include supportive supervision, social support from coworkers, increasing autonomy over work, and managing work expectations. The document emphasizes that not all social workers experience stress and that interventions can help reduce stress for some.

1. STRESS BUSTERS – WHAT HELPS SOCIAL
WORKERS AND WHY?
Jo Moriarty Jill Manthorpe

2. BACKGROUND
Recently completed literature review for Professional Standards Authority. Also relates to ongoing
work on recruitment and retention in social care and debates about compassion and compassion
fatigue
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3. LONGSTANDINGTOPIC IN SOCIAL WORK
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4. INTERNATIONALLY CONSISTENT RESULTS
Burnout in social workers treating children as
related to demographic characteristics, work
environment, and social support
When work and family are in conflict: impact
on psychological strain experienced by social
workers in Australia
Sinking, swimming and sailing: experiences of
job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion in
child welfare employees
Symptoms of posttraumatic stress among
child welfare workers who experience a
maltreatment fatality on their caseload
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5. BUT NOW INCREASED PUBLICITY
•Results from community
Care andTMP Survey in
October 2014
•Context of:
•reduced expenditure on
social care
•Increased demand for
services (adults and
children)
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6. SOME UNTANGLING NEEDED
How is stress being measured? Who was included in the research and how were they recruited?
How does it compare with the general population or other professionals?What about separating
out work related and other stressors?
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7. MEASURED IN DIFFERENTWAYS
Environmental
• Identifying life events associated with stress
• What experiences might make you vulnerable to experiencing stress?
Psychological
• Focus on how stressors are perceived
• Increases or changes in behaviour (e.g. alcohol use)
Biological
• Physiological responses to stress (e.g. cortisol levels)
• BUT may change for other non-stress related reasons
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8. NO ONE ‘RIGHT’ ANSWER BUT ….
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•Need to recognise different theoretical and conceptual
models exist
•Must appraise quality of research being reported
•Results may be affected by:
•Sampling – who was included, who was missed out
•How stress/burnout was measured
•If study could distinguish between work related and non work
related factors

9. MESSAGES FROM RESEARCH
What are the factors that have emerged as important in research?
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10. TO START US OFF
From your
experience, what
are some of the
reasons why social
workers may
experience stress?
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11. NATURE OFTHE WORK
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Workers often feel distressed by the
repeated exposure to traumatic material
in the agency’s attempts to understand
what “went wrong” (Douglas 2012)
CPS workers are often the first people to come into contact with an abused and/or neglected child and
may work extensively with this client and the family.Working so intensely with the child’s experience
would be a risk factor of developing compassion fatigue (Bourassa 2012)
Daily, social workers face the busy and complex
world of human behaviour in social contexts—a
world in which relationships break down, emotions
run high and personal needs go unmet (Hamama
2012)

12. WORKLOADS
•Our 2009 survey using
time diaries (Baginsky et
al, 2009) showed many
workers did equivalent of
an extra day a week over
their contracted hours
•Challenge to find ways of
matching individual
caseloads and workloads
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Most nights I wake up in the
night worrying about work I
have not had time to do. I
struggle to enjoy life outside
work as I’m so exhausted
(worker in CommunityCareTMP survey)

13. ROLE CONFLICT
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The challenges and changes that are occurring in the health care
environment have produced job demands and expectations that are incompatible with workers’
expectations about how they want to use their skills and function at work (Acker & Lawrence 2009)
… with stress deriving in particular
from role conflict between client
advocacy and meeting agency
needs (Lloyd et al 2002)
Social work is often characterised by a combination of
high demands and limited resources, and therefore innate
conflicts can be seen as a natural part of the work
(Blomberg et al 2014)

14. WHAT HELPS?
Need to focus on what interventions would help instead of repeating research about problems
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15. WHAT HELPS?
From your
experience, what
are some of the
things that your
organisation does
(could do) to help
reduce stress?
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16. SUPERVISION (BUTTHE RIGHT KIND)
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Supervisors who are open and responsive to the opinions of frontline social workers about
their job-specific problems can help those workers to cope with job demands (Kim et al 2011)
One aspect of supervision that was predictive of high levels of stress perceived that one’s supervision
was primarily geared to protecting supervisors (Lloyd et al 2002)
Research on turnover has repeatedly shown
that supervisor and co-worker support can
buffer the effect of burnout and turnover
(McFadden et al 2014)

17. GOOD SOCIAL SUPPORT (BE ALERTTO
WHAT IS MEASURED & HOW)
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Social support groups can revitalize and enhance members’ capacities to adapt to current
challenges and cope more effectively with future stressful life events.They can also mobilize to
help members advocate for structural changes at their workplaces or for the profession as a
whole (Meier 2002)
Social support can be an important coping mechanism that can
reduce the negative effects of stressors [but] others argue that
such effects can only occur in the context of a positive work
culture which values employees performing equally well in both
their work and family roles (Kalliath et al 2014)
Taking part in informal social activities
represents one possible approach to
prevent burnout and psychological
distress (Sánchez-Moreno et al 2014)

18. CHANGINGTHE NATURE OFTHEWORK
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Social workers who had
experienced an increase in
budget constraints or
efficiency demands reported
experiences of impaired work-
related well-being more often
than their colleagues
(Mänttäri-van der Kuip 2014)
It is the combination of high demand and low control that may be most
problematic …This study found that being part of the IB pilots was
associated with a doubling of the likelihood of being at risk of high strain,
which suggests that the new processes added to existing burdens of
work and reduced discretion (Wilberforce et al 2014)
Job autonomy seems to contribute to [job satisfaction] in spite of high
demands (Stalker et al 2007)

19. MANAGING EXPECTATIONS AND
RESPONSES
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[Two] studies used a Realistic Job Preview
(RJP), which aims to ensure that applicants
fully understand the challenges and
expectations of the position prior to starting
(Webb & Carpenter 2012)
Of particular relevance to educators who may seek to enhance resilience in students is
the growing evidence that it is not an innate, stable characteristic, but one that can be
developed through carefully targeted interventions (Grant et al 2014)
Extending from setting boundaries, the
themes of ‘do not rescue’, and ‘knowing
limitations’ were all stated by participants as
necessary in maintaining their own wellbeing
(Wendt et al 2011)

20. STRATEGIESVARY – FOOD, EXERCISE OR
BOTH?
NASW Survey Community Care
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21. AS AN INDIVIDUAL
What are some of
the things that you
find helpful in
reducing stress?
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22. CONCLUDINGTHOUGHTS
•Absolutely not correct to take ‘can’t stand the heat, get
out of the kitchen approach’
•Not just about the work – otherwise all social workers
would feel stressed
•It is not inevitable – some interventions help
•Possible to experience high caseloads and high job
satisfaction
•About increasing autonomy and role conflict
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23. AND FINALLY…
Before we finish…..
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24. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING
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only

25. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND DISCLAIMER
•The Social CareWorkforce Research Unit receives
funding from the Department of Health Policy Research
Programme.The views expressed in this presentation
are those of the authors and not those of the
Department of Health
•Stress and burnout was one of the topics covered in our
literature review for the Professional Standards
Authority
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26. SOURCES
Slide no Source
1 Picture credit: Monkey Business Images/Rex Features. Taken from: http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2013/07/16/stress-busting-
hackney-model-under-threat-from-cherry-picking-councils/
3 Pile of journals http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/journal-citation-cartels-on-the-rise/2005009.article and Wordle -
thanks Jonathan Feinberg
4 Image of globe: http://imgkid.com/globe-map-wallpaper.shtml
5 BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-29441949
6 Knitting http://knitfreedom.com/magic-loop/keep-yarn-from-tangling
10, 15, 21 Blackboard http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2013/05/28/so-what-do-you-think
20 NASW survey http://workforce.socialworkers.org/whatsnew/stress.pdf & Community Care
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2013/12/02/social-workers-more-likely-to-turn-to-food-than-managers-to-cope-with-stress/
24 Social Care Elf http://www.thesocialcareelf.net/publication-types/survey/social-workers-caregiver-identity-distress/ Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2015/jan/26/social-work-stress-caseload-support
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