Not many people fall into social work, and if they do they either
take to it or get out fast. It is often thought of as a vocation. For
people that enjoy the work it gives them an enormous sense of
fulfillment and achievement. However, this and a host of other factors
can lead to stress both acute and chronic. This can lead to burnout and
ultimately ill health. This article will examine some of the causes of
stress in social work.
The definition of Social work taken from the International Federation of Social Workers is
"The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being.
Utilizing theories of human behavior and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments.
Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work."
So in effect this is all encompassing work. It deals with human social cooperation and relationships from children to old age. It deals with child welfare, domestic issues of violence to women, physical and mental disabilities and equality and old age welfare and dignity to name just a few.
Many people do this work because they relate to the problems that people are facing. Either they have a relative or friend that has faced this problem or they are facing the problem themselves. Whatever the case may be, they often find it very hard not to become emotionally involved in the particular case they are handling. In this respect they never switch off from work. The issues they are facing often can't be switched off or locked up at the end of the day. The issues affect a persons life 24 hours a day.
This means the social worker is probably thinking about these problems constantly. This could interfere with their sleeping patterns and cause them to lose sleep. They can interfere with the social worker's ability to have a social life and keep their own life harmonious. So becoming too emotionally involved is the number one cause of stress in a social workers life.
Another cause of stress for social workers is closely related to the first. Often they will be caused to go above and beyond their skill set because they feel responsible for the person they are working with. Often they are not adequately trained for the job they are doing or the organization they work for has not defined the boundaries of the work clearly enough. If there is a shortage of staff (and there always is) clearly defined roles are blurred and social workers have to do more than one job. This can lead to stress through overworking and meeting impossible deadlines.
The final point is that many social work jobs will entail dealing with a degree of grief. Some cases may end tragically and some cases will end without any resolution. This can lead to the social worker having to deal with strong feelings of sadness or frustration. If they do not deal with these emotions they could compound on each other and cause chronic stress. This could lead to burnout and ill health.
The definition of Social work taken from the International Federation of Social Workers is
"The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being.
Utilizing theories of human behavior and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments.
Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work."
So in effect this is all encompassing work. It deals with human social cooperation and relationships from children to old age. It deals with child welfare, domestic issues of violence to women, physical and mental disabilities and equality and old age welfare and dignity to name just a few.
Many people do this work because they relate to the problems that people are facing. Either they have a relative or friend that has faced this problem or they are facing the problem themselves. Whatever the case may be, they often find it very hard not to become emotionally involved in the particular case they are handling. In this respect they never switch off from work. The issues they are facing often can't be switched off or locked up at the end of the day. The issues affect a persons life 24 hours a day.
This means the social worker is probably thinking about these problems constantly. This could interfere with their sleeping patterns and cause them to lose sleep. They can interfere with the social worker's ability to have a social life and keep their own life harmonious. So becoming too emotionally involved is the number one cause of stress in a social workers life.
Another cause of stress for social workers is closely related to the first. Often they will be caused to go above and beyond their skill set because they feel responsible for the person they are working with. Often they are not adequately trained for the job they are doing or the organization they work for has not defined the boundaries of the work clearly enough. If there is a shortage of staff (and there always is) clearly defined roles are blurred and social workers have to do more than one job. This can lead to stress through overworking and meeting impossible deadlines.
The final point is that many social work jobs will entail dealing with a degree of grief. Some cases may end tragically and some cases will end without any resolution. This can lead to the social worker having to deal with strong feelings of sadness or frustration. If they do not deal with these emotions they could compound on each other and cause chronic stress. This could lead to burnout and ill health.
If you feel that you may be suffering from stress related burnout then visit http://stressmanagementreview.com. The site can identify common symptoms of stress and help you develop a stress management program.
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