In my master's thesis, I researched support for social workers at social work centers in collaboration with families facing multiple challenges. I was interested in how support is offered to social workers who collaborate with families facing multiple challenges and where they would need it even more. In addition, the purpose of the master's thesis was to investigate whether social workers feel overloaded in their work and how they take care of themselves. Social work with families facing multiple challenges is indeed complex, so it is very important that social workers in this area are even more committed to providing comprehensive support and help to the family. This kind of work requires the whole person and can become emotionally exhausting for social workers who may find themselves at the edge of their capabilities when collaborating with the family for a long time. For this reason, it is very important that social workers who collaborate with families facing multiple challenges are provided with the necessary support, which helps to reduce the overload of the individual social worker.
In the research, social workers reported that they do have support, both inside and outside the organization, but they would still like more support that would make it easier for them to collaborate with families facing multiple challenges. This mainly concerns the reorganization of work, the reduction of the number of cases per individual social worker and the increased number of employees in the field of family protection. In addition, social workers would be significantly supported by a more accessible and expanded network of external programs to which they could refer their users. The wishes of the social workers also related to the transformation of training at the workplace, namely that it should be more accessible, in-depth, continuous, multi-day and experientially oriented.
Social workers who collaborate with families facing multiple challenges feel overloaded in their work, which they deal with in different ways. They are also aware of the importance of self-care and try to take care of themselves to the best of their ability and in different ways.
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