 “Suffering in silence”: How social workers in child welfare practice experience and manage burnoutSulemana Fuseini Children and Youth Services Review, 2024, vol. 166, issue C Abstract: Social workers in child welfare practice encounter dilemmas, tensions, contradictions, ambiguities, and ambivalence as they attempt to meet the competing demands of the Tri-sphere — the formal child welfare system, the professional theories and values guiding practice, and the child welfare service recipients. This study explored how these encounters result in worker burnout and how that is managed. The study used a constructivist grounded theory approach. Data were collected in St. John’s, NL, Canada, employing in-depth individual interviews with 18 frontline child welfare social workers. Findings reveal that child welfare social workers regularly experience varied feelings and emotions of burnout and utilize a variety of self-care strategies to manage. Recommendations include a call for child welfare agencies to provide opportunities for workers to feel heard and acknowledged about any negative feelings and emotions, strengthen positive peer supports, and promote essential self-care practices such as offering reduced membership cost for physical activities. Date: 2024 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:166:y:2024:i:c:s0190740924005115 DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2024.107939 Access Statistics for this article Children and Youth Services Review is currently edited by Duncan Lindsey More articles in Children and Youth Services Review from Elsevier |
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