Stress in Social Services: Mental Wellbeing, Constraints and Job Satisfaction

Social workers, resilience, positive emotions and optimism

“…Social workers obtain much satisfaction from their work with users, have high commitment and believe they can make a difference to people's lives (Eborall and Garmeson 2001;Huxley et al 2005). At the same time, there is much evidence of stress in social work, poor resources, limited support and high staff turnover, with shortages of social workers in many statutory settings, especially in childcare work (Jones 2001;Coffey, Dudgill, and Tattersall 2004). What might enable some workers to persist, endure and thrive in their careers, compared to others who may become ill and sometimes eventually leave the profession?…”

Profesionalni Stres Kod Socijalnih Radnika: Izvori Stresa I Sagorijevanje Na Poslu

“…S obzirom na složenost zadataka, odnosno poslove kojima se bave socijalni radnici, nekoliko studija pokazalo je da određeni zahtjevi u skrbi za djecu mogu kod socijalnih radnika u socijalnim službama dovesti do toga da dožive više stresa, manje zadovoljstvo poslom, ograničenu potporu i više poteškoća u suočavanju sa stresom, ali se također pokazalo i da socijalni radnici koji rade sa starijim osobama imaju višu razinu stresa od socijalnih radnika koji rade s djecom (Bennett i Evans, 1993.;Coffey, Dugdill i Tattersall, 2004.;Collins, 2008. Od ostalih izvora stresa koji pridonose nepovoljnim psihičkim i fizičkim posljedicama kod socijalnih radnika su: efekti radnog preopterećenja na osobni život, nedostatak kontrole nad radom i donošenjem odluka, nedostatak socijalne podrške, loše upravljanje i nejasna radna uloga (Michie i Williams, 2003. ).…”

“…), da je zanimanje socijalnog radnika jedno od najstresnijih zanimanja (Travers i Cooper, 1993.;Kahn, 1993. ) te da je stres na poslu u ovoj profesiji u stalnom porastu (Coffey, Dugdill i Tattersall, 2004.). Istraživanjem opće procjene stresnosti posla u kojem je sudjelovalo 147 socijalnih radnika iz Centra za socijalnu skrb Zagreb, pokazalo se da svi procjenjuju stresnim svoj posao, dok ga njih 33% smatra izuzetno stresnim (Friščić, 2006.).…”

‘Connectivity’: Seeking conditions and connections for radical discourses and praxes in health, mental health and social work

“…There are many de-motivated practitioners in these settings and many managers who are disconnected from any sense of the remit of services being to meet need and to support and protect (Davies, 2005). Workplace cultures in health, mental health and social work emphasise meeting delivery and performance targets and a 'tickbox culture' prevails (Coffey et al, 2004;Kirkham, 2004 www.radmid.demon.co.uk/htm ). Exploring the inter-connected political and personal meanings of their work is impossible for many health and social work professionals; often the focus in supervision sessions is scrutiny of performance against predetermined standards, rather than consideration of needs or processes in developing relationships with patients and service users (Taylor, 2000 www.radmid.demon.co/megtaylor.htm ).…”

“…However, it is important to be aware that for many service users, patients and carers, trust and credibility will need to be earned and established by professionals in health, mental health and social work before partnerships can be secured and maintained (Hopkins et al, 2007;Wills and Simms, 2004. ) In a large-scale study of social service departments in the north of England, Coffey, Dugdill and Tattersall (2004) note respondents reporting that to improve job satisfaction they wanted either increased staffing, or lower workload levels, so that sufficient time could be allocated to the real needs of service users. Much the same findings appear in a smaller-scale study by Jones (2001) would-be health and social work professionals are well-aware of the need to engage with patients, service users and carers as people, rather than as targets to be processed (Davies, 2005).…”