Self-care among Slovenian social workers : understanding and barriers to self-care

Rakovec, Primož (author), Videmšek, Petra (author)

In this study, we investigated what Slovenian social workers understand by self-care and what barriers to self-care are the most common. Almost all respondents in our sample agreed that self-care is very important for social workers’ well-being and professional practice. However, only 38% fully agreed that they know how to take care of their well-being, and only 23% of social workers surveyed take care of themselves on a daily basis. The most frequently mentioned self-care practices in the personal domain are eating a regular and healthy diet, spending quality time with enjoyable others, and spending time in nature. The least-mentioned practices are time away from the telephone, journal writing, engaging in personal psychotherapy, and meditation. Engaging with co-workers and attending supervision are the most mentioned practices in the organisational self-care domain, while negotiation skills and setting boundaries with users and co-workers are the least mentioned practices. The most common barriers to self-care are work overload and lack of time. As the field of self-care among social workers in Slovenia is still unexplored and unregulated, we have suggested the first possible steps on micro, mezzo, and macro levels.

• Language: English
• Keywords: self-care, resilience, understanding, barriers, social workers
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FSD - Faculty of Social Work
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 349–362
• Numbering: Vol. 38, no. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-160221
• UDC: 364-43
• ISSN on article: 0265-0533
• DOI: 10.1080/02650533.2024.2362662
• COBISS.SI-ID: 198023683
• Publication date in RUL: 23.08.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of social work practice
• Shortened title: J. soc. work pract.
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis, Group for the Advancement of Psychodynamics and Psychotherapy in Social Work
• ISSN: 0265-0533
• COBISS.SI-ID: 747541

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.