Title: How Social Workers Can Prioritize Self-Care in High-Stress Working Environments | USC Social Work
Headings: How Social Workers Can Prioritize Self-Care in High-Stress Working Environments
News & Events
How Social Workers Can Prioritize Self-Care in High-Stress Working Environments
Understanding secondary trauma
Understanding burnout
Guidelines for practicing effective self-care
1. Practice self-awareness
2. Divide the mission of self-care into categories
3. Create a detailed self-care plan
4. Stay accountable
Creating increased awareness about the stress of social work

Content: Understanding secondary trauma
“Among the most common negative mental health effects of dealing with others’ trauma every day is secondary trauma,” said Hydon, whose expertise in secondary traumatic stress has informed research and intervention strategies for K-12 teachers across Los Angeles County. Secondary trauma, also referred to as vicarious trauma or compassion fatigue, is the indirect exposure to trauma through the reception of a firsthand account of another’s traumatic experience. According to the American Counseling Association, care providers may experience secondary trauma as a result of becoming “witnesses to the pain, fear, and terror that trauma survivors have endured.” This phenomenon can lead to a symptomology comparable to that of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including reexperiencing, hyperarousal and avoidance. Clinicians who have experienced secondary trauma may find themselves unable to stop thinking about a certain client’s traumatic past, or alternatively, may find themselves purposefully avoiding the subject or even feeling numb toward it. While there is a lack of consensus in the psychological community as to whether secondary traumatic stress can be fully pathologized or should be understood solely as a reaction, a small percentage of clinicians do develop fully diagnosable PTSD as a result of their work. Understanding burnout
Conversely, Hydon said, “burnout occurs over time, rather than in response to a singular narrative or experience.” According to the Mayo Clinic, work-related burnout is “a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity.” Changes in somatic and behavioral functioning may also occur as a result of burnout, says Christina Maslach, a pioneering researcher of the phenomenon and creator of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (a scale for measuring burnout levels). As research published in the Journal of Mental Health points out, even within service-focused roles, social workers may experience higher levels of stress and burnout than those in comparable occupational jobs.