Kate van Heugten - Social Work Under Pressure: How to Overcome Stress, Fatigue and Burnout in the Workplace

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Social Work Under Pressure

How to Overcome Stress, Fatigue and Burnout in the Workplace

Kate van Heugten

Jessica Kingsley Publishers

London and Philadelphia

First published in 2011

by Jessica Kingsley Publishers

116 Pentonville Road

London N1 9JB, UK

and

400 Market Street, Suite 400

Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA

www.jkp.com

Copyright Kate van Heugten 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright owners written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher.

Warning: The doing of an unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work may result in both a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

van Heugten, Kate, 1959-

Social work under pressure : how to overcome stress, fatigue and burnout in the workplace / Kate van Heugten.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-84905-116-3 (alk. paper)

1. Social workers--Psychology. 2. Social service--Psychological aspects. 3. Job stress. 4. Burn out (Psychology) I. Title.

HV40.35.V36 2011

361.3019--dc22

2011001446

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 84905 116 3

eISBN 978 0 85700 223 5

Converted to eBook by EasyEPUB

Acknowledgements

First, my thanks to the 14 social work practitioners, supervisors and managers who shared their insights into how, despite its pressures, a career in social work can be enormously rewarding and enjoyable.

Thanks to my research assistant Jaimee Kleinbichler, without whose excellent literature searching and proofreading I would have been hard pressed to meet my deadlines. My appreciation also goes to Professor Ken Strongman, for his encouragement and suggestions on a draft of the book. Muchas gracias, to Dr Maria Prez-y-Prez, in particular for her support of my storytelling in the concluding chapter, and for many other stimulating conversations. And to Stephen Jones and Caroline Walton from Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London, whose advice, answers to questions, and kind messages in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Christchurch were much appreciated.

Finally, thank you to Charles for countless hours spent critiquing and reading drafts. And to Jack and Hanna for allowing me to write about some of our family experiences, and for ensuring I remember the importance of living every day.

Authors note

In Chapter 5 I describe the immediate aftermath of the 4 September 2010 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, that measured 7.1 on the Richter Scale. Subsequent to that, on 22 February 2011, Christchurch was struck by a more devastating earthquake, this time measuring 6.3, but at a shallow depth and located close to the city centre. Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed and close to 200 people lost their lives. Family, friends and colleagues from within New Zealand and around the globe provided support and extended their good wishes to our community. At the time of my writing this Authors note, not all of the deceased have as yet been identified, and the grieving of losses is interwoven with the beginnings of a recovery and rebuilding. The events of 22 February have left a profound imprint, and will, eventually, make most of us more resilient and compassionately attuned to human suffering.

Kate van Heugten

22 March 2011

Part 1

Workplace Stress

Chapter 1

Introduction to Concepts and Models of Workplace Stress

Introduction

It will not come as a surprise to the readers of this book that workers in human service occupations experience high levels of stress. Yet until very recently, there has been a lack of attention to what may be causing this and how it can be overcome.

Occasionally, beginning practitioners are fortunate enough to be assigned a confident mentor or buddy who normalizes the impact of work on the worker. When I think back to the start of my career as a social worker nearly 30 years ago, I recall how I was assigned an old hand for those first weeks. Matt (not his real name) inducted me into the official, and not quite so official, finer points of working in the child welfare service. I well recall his words to me that we have mental health days here, and that taking a little time out and doing something pleasant when I felt overly stretched, whether physically or emotionally, could forestall illness. He reckoned this should not be classed as time wasting. I am not sure that his views were sanctioned by management, though I suspect they were. The message let me know that it was normal to feel that this was a tough job. It helped me tune into my physical and emotional wellbeing, and let me know that actions to take care of myself were a mark of professionalism, rather than personal failure. My mentors words to me were heartfelt, well timed, and always remembered.

Other social workers, with the help of a sympathetic supervisor, stumble upon the discovery that the distressing effects of working too many hours with traumatized clients have names, such as vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue and burnout . Timely support may forestall the loss of some of our most sensitive and passionate workers from agencies or from the profession. However, whilst some individuals receive good support, lack of concerted attention to the problem of stress overload means too many social workers are left to struggle on their own.

In the process of writing this book, many people came forward and offered suggestions and recommendations. Amongst those, 14 social work practitioners, all resident in New Zealand, responded to an invitation to participate in interviews about what they find most stressful about social work, and how they believe this may be overcome.

Phoebe was one of these. She had this to say about the lack of attention to ameliorating stress:

Phoebe: Its like a culture of stress and anxiety maybe, that you are kind of just supposed to deal with, not really supposed to talk about out loud. And, kind of, the toughest survive. But what that does to a person and what that does to their practice from what I have witnessed is not that great. I had this thing where, to be a good social worker I had to learn how to get over it. I should learn how to manage the stress better, I should learn how to manage the workload, and that would make me a good successful social worker. and I considered seriously not ever doing social work ever, ever again [crying] which is like a calling for me rather than just doing it to make money.

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