In my master's thesis, I discuss the topic of self-care in the field of social work. I am interested in how social workers take care of themselves and how they implement mindfulness in their daily work. I am also interested in what social workers define as the biggest problem in performing their work, how they face various challenges in performing their work, how they most often react to an unpleasant event and whether social workers are emotionally exhausted. The research includes social workers who attended a seminar for mentors on 28 March 2024 entitled Methods of Social Work - Reflective Practice as a Basis for Recognizing Social Work Competencies, which was held at the Faculty of Social Work.
In the theoretical introduction, I focus on stress and exhaustion in social work. I then introduce burnout and compassion fatigue and outline preventative measures to prevent burnout. In the following, I focus on self-care in the support and helping professions and on different self-care techniques. I continue with the topic of mindfulness, its origins and its definition, and present different approaches to mindfulness. I conclude the theoretical introduction with an awareness of the profession of social work.
The practical part includes the presentation of the research problem with research questions and hypotheses and the methodology, where I present the measurement instrument (questionnaire with open and closed type questions), the data collection method and the research unit. Results, discussion and conclusions follow.
The research was conducted on a non-random and convenient sample of 57 social workers aged 25 to 55 or more. 53 women and 4 men participated in it. Data were obtained using an online questionnaire 1ka. The key findings of the research are the following: the biggest problem at work for social workers is the excessive amount of work, too much administrative work and lack of staff; they cope with the mentioned problems with the help of supervision and supervision, working overtime, working according to a list of priorities and with the support of colleagues; they most often react to an unpleasant event by trying to find a solution to the situation; too much work, problems in the system, disconnection in the team, excessive expectations of users and lack of staff contribute to stressful situations; social workers talk about stressful events with colleagues, partners, friends and superiors at work and in supervision meetings; more than half of the participants consider that they are not emotionally exhausted; social workers most often use good sleep as a self-care technique; most of the participants believe that the work organization provides them with professional support; more than half of the participants have not yet tried the mindfulness technique; most are in favor of the mindfulness technique, but at the same time they have a desire to gain more knowledge about mindfulness.
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