In the first part of my thesis, I presented compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma and
burnout. I also described the importance of self-care and organizational care in social work and
current working conditions at social work centers.
In research, I focused on social workers' coping with compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma and
burnout. I was also interested in what strategies and techniques organization uses to reduce
stress and improve work climate and how social workers take care of themselves. I also focused
on the current working conditions at the Center for social work in Ljubljana. I have found that
most social workers are unfamiliar with phenomen compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma,
although they talk about their symptoms. Social workers state importance of taking care of
themselves and practice it through various techniques. Despite the various strategies for
reducing stress, offered by organization, social workers pointed out unsuitable working
conditions as lack of time. With the results of the research I found out it would be necessary to
educate social workers about compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma and burnout, because these
phenomens are common. The research also showed that the working conditions at the Center
for Social Work in Ljubljana should be regulated and that social workers should be given more
time to perform social work itself.
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