About this Guide
This guide provides information and resources on a variety of topics related to worker and workforce well-being in child welfare, including burnout, occupational stress, compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction, vicarious trauma, vicarious resilience, and self-care.
Self-care and Community Care
While this guide references and includes resources on the topic of self-care, there are criticisms of this concept as messaging around self-care often puts the onus on individuals to find necessary solutions and supports for managing their healing and well-being.
The concept of community or collective care, however, acknowledges the role that social networks play in healthy communities. It also shifts some of the responsibility for well-being to collective entities and actors such as employers.
For more on the conversation of self-care and community care, see here and here.
Stress, Trauma, and Burnout in Child Welfare Work
Stress & Trauma
- Vicarious Trauma and Secondary Stress in Therapeutic Residential Care [2022]A research brief compiled by The Centre for Excellence in Therapeutic Care with a focus on what is known about the factors that both worsen and reduce the risk of vicarious trauma and like conditions for those in the child welfare field.
- The Cost of Caring: Secondary traumatic stress and the impact of working with high-risk children and families [2014]This report from the ChildTrauma Academy is focused on the experiences of professionals working with traumatized children
- Secondary trauma and child welfare staff: Guidance for supervisors and administrators [n.d.]Resource for child welfare supervisors and administrators from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network
- Understanding secondary traumatic stress in child welfare [2012]A video learning module from the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare that introduces secondary traumatic stress and the impact it has on the child welfare system and workforce.
Burnout
- Sustaining our Own Mental Wellness: Burnout, Vicarious Trauma, and Compassion Fatigue in a Rural Context [2022]A chapter from the book 'Rural and Northern Social Work Practice: Canadian Perspectives' which details some differences in burnout, vicarious trauma, and compassion fatigue when workers operate in a rural location.
- A Deeper Look at Burnout in the Child Welfare Workforce [2018]A webinar conducted by Dr. Robin Leake who shares findings from research studies about who is most at risk for experiencing burnout, how factors related to a high-pressure agency environment contribute to burnout, and the relationship between burnout and secondary traumatic stress stemming from working with families and children experiencing trauma. Note: you must be a PART member to access this resource.
Vicarious Resilience and Compassion Satisfaction in Child Welfare Work
Vicarious Resilience
- Keeping Our Trauma Therapists Healthy with Vicarious Resilience [2018]This blog post discusses the concept of vicarious resilience and its importance to professionals
- Vicarious Resilience and Healthy Helping Professionals [2017]Article from Psychology Today on the relevance of vicarious resilience to professionals who work with children
Compassion Satisfaction
- Compassion Fatigue/Secondary Traumatic Stress: This is Hard, this Work that We Do, AND We Are Making a Difference [2020]A webinar that explores secondary traumatic stress/compassion fatigue, other human services workplace stressors, and how to ultimately experience "compassion satisfaction".
- Climbing the Mountain Together: Social Workers' Constructions of Positive Reactions from Trauma Work [2016]This dissertation describes a qualitative study involving 15 social workers and exploring their positive reactions and experiences working with traumatized clients
Individualized Resources
Tools
- Self-care AssessmentWorksheet for assessing self-care and tracking how often and how well you take steps to take care of yourself.
- ProQOL MeasureA link to the ProQol (Professional Quality of Life) which is a commonly used self-score measure for professionals helping others who experience suffering and trauma.
- StressAssess: Personal editionAn online survey tool designed by the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers to provide some insight, perspective, and understanding of workplace stress.
Toolkits and Guides
- Returning to the Workplace-- Resiliency Toolkit for Employees [2021]A toolkit developed by Employee and Family Assistance Program (FSEAP) that offers resources to workers that can assist them in developing awareness, skills, and strategies to help build and maintain resiliency.
- A Guide to Surviving and Thriving in Child Welfare for African Canadian Staff [2018]Poster offering support and uplifting messages for all African Canadians working in child welfare
- Self-Care Starter Kit [2015]Online resource from the University of Buffalo School of Social Work providing information on self-care, guidance on developing a self-care plan, self-care assessments, exercises, activities, and other resources.
Fact Sheets and Resource Lists
- Self Care ResourcesSelf-care is vital to our health, as well as to our ability to support for others and to address injustice. This page compiles self-care resources gathered by gender-based violence advocate, Farrah Khan, and includes lists of books, podcasts, courses, Instagram accounts, and mental health resources.
Organizational Responses
Centering Wellbeing
- Centering Child Welfare Worker Well-being [2022]This infographic describes how child welfare organizations can center child welfare worker well-being to better support children and families.
- Top causes of staff turnover at child welfare agencies – and what to do about it [2019]Blog post from the Annie E. Casey Foundation with a link to a report that is focused on helping child welfare agencies navigate the issue of staff turnover in child welfare
Building Resilience
- Building Resilience for Child Welfare Professionals [2022]A webinar for child welfare professionals that aims to provide tools and resources for workers to help themselves and their clients to respond with resilience in the face of challenges. You can view the webinar slides here.
- Social Work Organisational Resilience Diagnostic (SWORD) [2022]Online resource from Research in Practice (U.K.), Professor Gail Kinman, and Dr. Louise Grant intended to improve organizational resilience in child and family social work. It provides senior leaders with an accessible, research-informed diagnostic tool and associated workbook to understand, build, and sustain resilience in their organizations
- Returning to the Workplace-- Resiliency Toolkit for Managers [2021]A toolkit developed by Employee and Family Assistance Program (FSEAP) that provides managers with information, strategies, tips, and resources to guide them in their work to support employee well-being and resiliency.
- Resiliency building information and resources [2018]Outlines the key components of resiliency building and provides links to resources. Note: login to myOACAS required to access
- The Resilience Alliance: Promoting resilience and reducing trauma among child welfare staff [2011]This training manual was designed to mitigate secondary trauma symptoms experienced by child welfare staff, and secondary trauma’s impact on unit and agency functioning. A participant handbook is also available here
Supervisors can also visit the Supervision in child welfare LibGuide for a wider range of resources on this topic.
Sector Initiatives and Resources
- Explained: The Child Welfare Worker Safety Project [2018]Yacine Dottridge, Senior Program Analyst – Labour Relations from OACAS, explains the origins of the Ontario child welfare sector's Worker Safety Project.
- Worker Safety Project: Phase II final report [2018]This report addresses worker safety concerns and aims to improve worker safety for child welfare workers across the province. The report includes an entire section dedicated to the topic of occupational stress injuries including PTSD and other anxiety disorders. Note: login to myOACAS required to access.
- Occupational Stress injuries prevention report: An occupational mental health strategy for the child welfare sector [2018]This report presents recommended components for a program through which agencies can address and prevent occupational stress injuries (OSI) and psychological health and safety issues that arise in the course of child welfare work. Note: login to myOACAS required to access.
Research & Additional Resources
Note: you have to be authenticated by OACAS’s library databases to access any EBSCO articles. To learn how to be authenticated, you can visit the EBSCOHost research databases guide. If you are an OACAS member and are having difficulty accessing these articles, please reach out to Jessica Mariano, Content & Research Librarian (she/her).
Stress, Trauma, and Burnout
- Missing the Mark? Reframing NASW's Ethical Mandate for Self-Care as a Social Justice Issue [2023]An article that argues that self-care is not a personal responsibility and instead reframes the emotional and psychological problems experienced by social workers as a social justice issue, requiring mezzo and macro, rather than micro, level intervention.
- Addressing Social Workers' Stress, Burnout, and Resiliency: A Qualitative Study with Supervisors [2022]An exploratory study that explores supervisors approaches to addressing supervisees' stress, burnout, and resiliency. Findings highlight the importance of relationships, communication, self-care, work–life balance, and resources for well-being.
- The Trauma Within Our Knowledge Bundles: Indigenous Helpers Navigating Trauma in Social Work Education and Practice [2020]This article explores the potential trauma Indigenous social workers may face prior to practice, within post-secondary programs, and during practice. It also examines how Indigenous helpers may navigate trauma within practice and what may happen after re-stimulation of traumatic events.
- The Impact of Vicarious Trauma, Secondary Trauma, Compassion Fatigue, and Burnout on Indigenous Front-line Social Workers [2020]A dissertation that presents a literature review examining the various forms of trauma suffered by Indigenous front-line social workers, as well as the self-care practices and resilience of Indigenous social workers.
- Individual and Organizational Practices Addressing Social Workers' Experiences of Vicarious Trauma [2020]This article argues that organizations should be encouraged to accept responsibility for addressing vicarious trauma as a work health and safety issue.
Vicarious Resilience and Compassion Satisfaction
- Growth in Context: An Exploratory Study of Vicarious Resilience in Child and Youth Care Counsellors [2023]This dissertation explores how Child and Youth Care Counsellors experience and understand vicarious resilience. Additionally, organizational factors that may promote and/or hinder vicarious resilience were also considered.
- Caring for Our Child Welfare Workforce: A Holistic Framework of Worker Well-being [2021]This article presents a framework of worker well-being specific to the child welfare field and context which is informed by Engel’s (1978) biopsychosocial model of health and a review of current child welfare literature. The authors argue that by taking a holistic view of workforce well-being, child welfare leaders can guide efforts to support workforce well-being and stability.
- Vicarious resilience: A comprehensive review [2018]A review of the research conducted on vicarious resilience throughout the past 10 years and suggestions for future research in the field.
- Compassion Satisfaction Among Social Work Practitioners: The Role of Work–Life Balance [2020]This article explores the role of compassion satisfaction and specifically, examines individual and organizational factors associated with compassion satisfaction.
Websites