Development and Initial Validation of the Self-Care Practices Scale

Social Work ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
Jacquelyn J Lee ◽  
Shari E Miller ◽  
Brian E Bride
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Construct Validity ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
The Self ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Care Practice ◽  
Care Practices

Abstract Self-care is regarded as essential for effective social work practice, offsetting occupational stress and promoting well-being and resiliency among practitioners. However, the literature reveals a notable absence of psychometrically sound instruments to measure self-care. The purpose of the present study was to describe the development, refinement, and construct validity of the Self-Care Practices Scale (SCPS). The piloted version of the SCPS is a 38-item instrument designed to measure frequency of engagement in personal and professional self-care practices. Data were collected through mailed surveys from a random sample of master’s-level clinical social workers and members of the National Association of Social Workers (N = 492). Analysis supports the construct validity of an 18-item SCPS with two subscales that demonstrate strong internal validity. The SCPS is useful for social work educators, practitioners, and administrators to ascertain frequency of self-care practice and build a stronger culture of self-care. The role of SCPS in future research is discussed.

Assessing The “Millennial Self-Care Obsession” Among Social Workers: #NotSoMuch

2020 ◽  
pp. 146801732095435
Author(s):  
J Jay Miller ◽  
Erlene Grise-Owens
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Generational Differences ◽  
Life Support ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Professional Support ◽  
Care Practices

Summary Despite the importance of self-care to social work practice, misnomers about the construct persist. One misperception is that millennials are overly focused on self-care and engage in high-levels of self-care, to the detriment of performing work duties. This study examined the self-care practices of social work practitioners (N = 3079) in the United States. Researcher investigated self-care practices across five domains: Professional Support, Professional Development, Life Support, Cognitive Awareness, and Daily Balance. Findings Overall, data suggest that social workers in all generations engaged in moderate amounts of self-care. Analyses revealed that millennials engaged in significantly fewer self-care practices related to Professional Support and Daily Balance, when compared to Generation X and Baby-boomer participants. While not statistically significant, millennials scored lower across all other self-care domains. Applications This is the first known study to explicitly investigate generational differences in self-care within any professional discipline. Within the next five years, millennials will make up nearly 75% of the world’s workforce. Findings from this research suggest the need to reshape prevailing anecdotes about self-care and millennials. Further, data offer insights to organizations looking to better support social workers of all generations in engaging in self-care.

Self-Preservation in the Workplace: The Importance of Well-Being for Social Work Practitioners and Field Supervisors

Social Work ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-81
Author(s):  
Elisa M Martin ◽  
Karen Myers ◽  
Kirstiana Brickman
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Compassion Fatigue ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Care Practice ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Social Work Practitioners ◽  
Care Practices ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Field Supervisors

Abstract The risks in the human services workplace to social workers’ emotional, psychological, and physical well-being is well known. Self-care is seen as a way to minimize workplace risks, including burnout, compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, and vicarious traumatization. This article examines the reported self-care practices of social work practitioners and their agencies, and the barriers that get in the way. Forty-two participants worked in agency settings and supervised students. All reported engaging in some type of self-care practice, and almost all reported some type of support from their workplace; however, 38 reported barriers to self-care. Even with self-care practices in place personally and in the workplace, obstacles remain. Social work educators need to be cognizant of these factors to ensure that field supervisors are well supported in their own self-care practices and are equipped to assist students in developing these positive practices early in their careers to help sustain workers in the social work profession.

scholarly journals Specialist sexual violence social work: Ensuring good practice

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 60-71
Author(s):  
Bridget Leary ◽  
Kathryn Hay
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Knowledge Base ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Care Practices

INTRODUCTION: This research sought to understand social workers’ perspectives on good practice in specialist sexual violence social work practice in Aotearoa New Zealand.METHODS: In 2018, five registered social workers engaged in semi-structured interviews focused on good practice social work in the field of sexual violence.FINDINGS: The use of therapeutic social work, along with an extensive skill set and knowledge base were identified as fundamental for sexual violence social work. Boundaries and the development of broad self-care practices were recognised as crucial components of good practice.CONCLUSIONS: The findings from this study offers links between the field of sexual violence and social work practice, while also indicating the need for future research.

scholarly journals Degrowth for transformational alternatives as radical social work practice

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-433
Author(s):  
Meredith C.F. Powers ◽  
Komalsingh Rambaree ◽  
Jef Peeters
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Ecological Justice ◽  
The World

Historically, and in modern times, social workers have been culpable in perpetuating the very systems of oppression that we seek to eliminate. This happens as we are part of cultures and economies that operate out of the growth ideology. Acting in accordance with the growth ideology does not lead to the outcomes that we strive for as professional social workers. Rather, the growth ideology results in growing social inequalities and increasing ecological injustices around the world. Social work can, instead, embrace an ecosocial lens and promote degrowth approaches for transformational alternatives. Rather than reinforcing the existing systems of injustice and oppression, radical social work can take an activist role and bring about urgent and radical changes to promote ecological justice through social and ecological well-being. Examples from radical social work in local and international communities demonstrate the possibility of degrowth for transformational alternatives as radical social work practice.

scholarly journals Social work’s fingerprint on the evolution of attachment theory: Some essential knowledge for care practice

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 79-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shirley-Ann Chinnery
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Foster Care ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Attachment Theory ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Care Practice ◽  
Internal Working Model ◽  
Working Model ◽  
Internal Working

INTRODUCTION: Social work practice knowledge was seminal to the evolution of attachment theory. This disciplinary connection is little known to many social work practitioners. This article seeks to remind care practice social workers specifically of this association, as the social work skills upon which early attachment knowledge was premised remain important to contemporary care practice.METHOD: Through a three-part discussion, this article aims to deepen care practice social workers’ understanding of attachment theory and its practical relevance for care practice assessment. The first section outlines the watershed moments of the theory’s development. The second highlights social work’s connection to this development. The third and final section reviews the construct of the internal working model and its value for distinguishing emotional differences in an adult’s relational biography.FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS: A key care practice goal is to facilitate the healthy growth and development of children and young people who have been placed in foster care due to maltreatment. A growing number of attachment researchers have found that the internal working model of a child’s new caregivers, with respect to attachment, is an important element in the revision of the child’s internal working model of relationships (Pace Zavattini, 2011). Thus, care practice social workers need to pay close attention to relational facets in prospective caregivers’ assessments as some literature suggests that practitioners struggle to understand the role attachment orientation plays in the care relationship (Bick Dozier, 2008).CONCLUSIONS: This article highlights and elaborates upon the utility of attachment theory for present-day care practice and argues that a deep understanding of this theory is likely to be instrumental to achieving better relational outcomes in foster care. This knowledge is foundational to conceptualising the different relational expectancies that prospective foster parents might bring to a new relationship.

Investigating the self-care practices of social work faculty: an exploratory study

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (8) ◽  
pp. 1044-1059 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Jay Miller ◽  
Erlene Grise-Owens ◽  
Nada Shalash
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Self Care ◽  
The Self ◽  
Social Work Faculty ◽  
Care Practices

Social Work in Health Care with Older Adults: Future Challenges

2005 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara J. Berkman ◽  
Daniel S. Gardner ◽  
Bradley D. Zodikoff ◽  
Linda K. Harootyan
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Care Practice ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Future Challenges

Dramatic changes in demography, epidemiology, and the financing and delivery of health care have significantly affected the lives of older adults and their families. The authors review current and future trends in aging and health care in the United States and their implications for social work practice in enhancing the health and well-being of older adults and their caregivers. Health care social work in the 21st century requires the development and application of evidence-based knowledge that reflects the interrelatedness of aging, physical and mental health, and intergenerational family processes. The authors demonstrate the value of social work research to issues that are in the forefront of gerontological health care practice, policy, and education.

Is social work a green profession? An examination of environmental beliefs

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry V Shaw
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Small Body ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional

• Summary: Social work has developed to meet the needs of an industrializing society. As environmental concerns have increased, national, and international social work organizations have called on social workers to incorporate issues of the environment into their professional practice. Although there is a small body of literature related to social work and the environment, the profession has not fully embraced the need to incorporate these issues into social work education or practice. This cross-sectional survey in the United States of a random sample of National Association of Social Workers (NASW) members ( n = 373) was designed to gauge the environmental knowledge and attitudes of social work professionals. • Findings: Though social work shares many of the same underlying tenets of groups interested in environmental justice, results suggest that social workers as a profession are no more, nor less, environmentally friendly than the general population. • Applications: By failing to incorporate ecological issues facing the United States and abroad, our current social policies are at best not sustainable, and at worst dangerous for our continued social well-being. Social workers can play a leading role through an understanding of the interrelationship that exists between people and the environment, the integration of environmental issues into their social work practice, and advocating for vulnerable populations.

scholarly journals Traditional medicine in social work practice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Holoff
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Traditional Medicine ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Western Medicine ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Public Health Care ◽  
World Health

This partial grounded theory study explores the topic of Traditional medicine in social work practice in Toronto, Canada. Given the dearth of knowledge in this area, I wanted to explore the contrapuntal nature of two social workers’ practice who refer to Traditional Medicine, and to conceptualize further on this approach. Social work literature and practice has paid little attention to this topic despite the field’s purported commitment to equity and social justice. This is largely a reflection of how greatly we take for granted the bias towards Western medicine in our public health care system and in the social work referral system that is aligned with it. The World Health Organization defines Traditional medicine as: “Health practices, approaches, knowledge, and beliefs incorporating plant, animal, and mineral based medicines, spiritual therapies, manual techniques, and exercises, applied singularly or in combination to treat, diagnose, and prevent illnesses or maintain well-being” (Fokunang et al., 2011). Such approaches, which are based on Indigenous and non-Western ways of knowing are not covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP), and thus remain largely inaccessible to the most financially marginalized. This is a problem for those who cannot afford to pay out of pocket for their health care. It is a grave disservice to those whose culture does not align with Western medicine; those whose health conditions have not been helped by Western medicine; and those who require a combination of Western and Traditional approaches to bring them to full health. This research explores the knowledge, experience, and processes of two social workers in Toronto who refer clients to Traditional medicine in spite of the structural bias towards Western medicine and its approaches. Key Words: Traditional medicine, social work practice, contrapuntal approach, decolonization, the Medicine Wheel, Toronto

Emotional Support Animals: An Overview of Practical and Legal Issues for Social Workers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sur Ah Hahn ◽  
Jennifer Hinton ◽  
Ann Hallyburton
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Intrinsic Nature ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Client Assessment

Abstract Limited literature exists to guide social workers in the effective and ethical use of emotional support animals (ESAs) in practice. This article deals with practical issues these professionals face in dealing with requests for ESA authorization. The article provides an overview of relevant U.S. regulations (as of mid-2019) governing housing, travel, workplaces, and higher education; examines the uses, efficacy, and special concerns regarding ESAs; and presents recommendations for the use of ESAs in social work practice. Ethical implications for social workers dealing with client assessment and ESA authorization are discussed. The authors also address the intrinsic nature of human and ESA well-being and its relevance to client-centered social work practice. In addition, the authors discuss opportunities for incorporating ESAs into social work education.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document