Secondary trauma and impairment in clinical social workers

Purpose How might the profession of child protection social work be “future proofed”, i.e. remain intact and of value beyond its present existence? The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach This is a discussion/“think piece” paper, in which the author argues that foregrounding the art and science of helping relationships is a way forward. Recognising and promoting the centrality of helping relationships is the direction in which the author believes (or is it hopes?) social work should head, because “more of the same” is not, in the author’s view, possible to sustain for much longer. Treading the well-worn but pot-holed path of box-ticking, endless risk assessment and perfunctory statutory visiting is likely to lead to continuing problems retaining social workers and, for those who do stay, increased burnout, compassion fatigue and secondary trauma, each of which interrupts or delays the development of working alliances with family members. Findings Growing reliance on thresholds and checklists to assess risk has served to increase referrals. As a result, social workers spend much of their time on triaging and filtering rather than working with the children and families that most need help and protection. Further, it is not what is in the practitioner’s toolkit that matters: rather, it is a defined set of personal skills and qualities that tips the balance to achieve lasting change. Thus, in order to “future proof” social work, we would do well to deepen our understanding of how helping relationships can lead to lasting change. Supporting social workers in this work is not just the responsibility of individual practitioners and their professional bodies, action also needs to be taken at governmental and managerial levels. Originality/value This is a discussion/“think piece”.

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Faithful But Different: Clinical Social Workers Speak Out About Career Motivation and Professional Values

Journal of Social Work Education ◽

10.5175/jswe.2012.201000043 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 48 (3) ◽

pp. 459-477 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Carolyn Bradley ◽

Tina Maschi ◽

Helen O'Brien ◽

Keith Morgen ◽

Kelly Ward

Keyword(s):

Social Workers ◽

Professional Values ◽

Clinical Social Workers ◽

Career Motivation

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Zen Practice: A Training Method to Enhance the Skills of Clinical Social Workers

Social Work in Health Care ◽

10.1080/00981380802589860 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 48 (4) ◽

pp. 462-470 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Mark J. Brenner

Keyword(s):

Social Workers ◽

Clinical Social Workers ◽

Training Method

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Birth Cohort Testing for Hepatitis C Virus: Implications for Clinical Social Workers in Health Care Settings

Social Work in Health Care ◽

10.1080/00981389.2013.806385 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 52 (8) ◽

pp. 689-703 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Omar T. Sims ◽

Christopher C. Whalen ◽

Larry G. Nackerud ◽

Brian E. Bride

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Hepatitis C Virus ◽

Hepatitis C ◽

Social Workers ◽

Birth Cohort ◽

Clinical Social Workers ◽

Health Care Settings

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Social Workers' Views of Parents of Children with Mental and Emotional Disabilities

Families in Society The Journal of Contemporary Social Services ◽

10.1606/1044-3894.1817 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 79 (2) ◽

pp. 173-187 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Harriette C. Johnson ◽

Edwin F. Renaud ◽

Diane T. Schmidt ◽

Edward J. Stanek

Keyword(s):

Information Sharing ◽

Social Workers ◽

Attitudes And Beliefs ◽

Clinical Social Workers ◽

Mental Disabilities ◽

Good Source ◽

Dysfunctional Family ◽

The Social ◽

Problematic Area ◽

Source Of Information

In response to concerns expressed by parents of children with emotional and mental disabilities about professionals' attitudes and beliefs, the authors surveyed the views of a sample of clinical social workers. The majority of respondents in a national random sample endorsed statements expressing validating attitudes toward parents, agreement with open information sharing, and agreement with providing specific guidance to parents about how to help their children. However, the views of a substantial minority of social workers were antithetical to a parent-friendly perspective. The most problematic area was the prevalence of parent-blaming beliefs reported by approximately half of the social workers. The view that medication was helpful correlated positively with validating views of parents and correlated negatively with blaming them for their children's problems. The belief that research-based knowledge is important for practice and that medical journals are a good source of information about emotional problems correlated with support for open information sharing and the view that medication was helpful. Seeing a child as the identified patient in a dysfunctional family, perceiving parents' views as useful primarily as clues to family dynamics, and seldom feeling the need to refer to other disciplines, correlated positively with blame, negatively with the use of medication, and negatively with validating attitudes.

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Effectiveness of an advance care planning patient navigator on advance directive completion by electronic versus staff-based referrals at a major cancer hospital.

Journal of Clinical Oncology ◽

10.1200/jco.2017.35.31_suppl.20 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 35 (31_suppl) ◽

pp. 20-20 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Gayle Ito-Hamerling ◽

Lindsay Emanuel ◽

Finly Zachariah

Keyword(s):

Social Workers ◽

Advance Care Planning ◽

Advance Directive ◽

Completion Rate ◽

Care Planning ◽

Clinical Social Workers ◽

Patient Centered ◽

Advance Care ◽

Screening Platform

20 Background: Advance Care Planning (ACP) is a central component of patient-centered care, helping ensure patient values and preferences guide clinical decisions. Patient navigators have been utilized effectively in healthcare for numerous roles, and more recently for ACP. At City of Hope National Medical Center (COH), an ACP-focused navigator was hired to support patients, families, and staff with Advance Directive (AD) notarization and primary ACP conversations. Methods: The Department of Supportive Care Medicine at COH with significant institutional collaboration and administrative support created a patient-centered ACP program and marketing campaign, called “Plan Today for Tomorrow.” In 2016, an ACP navigator joined the team to facilitate AD completion. Referral to the ACP navigator occurred either through staff endorsement and/or the institution’s technological screening platform deployed in a majority of COH outpatient clinics. Staff referrals came from physicians, clinical social workers, nurses, or from the Sheri & Les Biller Patient and Family Resource Center. Prior to the ACP navigator, all referrals were addressed by Clinical Social Workers (CSWs). Results: In a review of 14 months of data, the ACP navigator followed up on 1,125 referrals, 574 were from staff, while 551 were from the institutional tablet-based screening platform. Follow-up on staff referrals resulted in an 86% AD completion rate. Follow-up on tablet-based screening resulted in a 23% AD completion rate. Conclusions: The presence of an available onsite ACP-focused navigator was more effective in facilitating AD completion of staff generated AD referrals as compared to AD completion of tablet-based patient screening AD referrals. The presence of the ACP navigator to facilitate AD completion decreased workload for CSWs, creating increased opportunity for CSWs to work at the top of their professional license. Further work is needed to increase the effectiveness of AD completion from tablet-based screening referrals.

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