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Summary: Despite the importance of self-care to social work practice, misnomers about the construct persist. One misperception is that millennials are overly focused on self-care and engage in high-levels of self-care, to the detriment of performing work duties. This study examined the self-care practices of social work practitioners (N = 3079) in the United States. Researcher investigated self-care practices across five domains: Professional Support, Professional Development, Life Support, Cognitive Awareness, and Daily Balance. Findings: Overall, data suggest that social workers in all generations engaged in moderate amounts of self-care. Analyses revealed that millennials engaged in significantly fewer self-care practices related to Professional Support and Daily Balance, when compared to Generation X and Baby-boomer participants. While not statistically significant, millennials scored lower across all other self-care domains. Applications: This is the first known study to explicitly investigate generational differences in self-care within any professional discipline. Within the next five years, millennials will make up nearly 75% of the world's workforce. Findings from this research suggest the need to reshape prevailing anecdotes about self-care and millennials. Further, data offer insights to organizations looking to better support social workers of all generations in engaging in self-care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The profession of social work faces a perfect storm of increasingly complex practice contexts, intensifying demands, and escalating burnout. This crisis requires immediate, critical, and substantive action by social work education. Social work programs function to prepare competent practitioners who can navigate these demands and complexities with efficacy, while sustaining themselves. For too long, practitioner well-being has been significantly neglected. This article promotes a basic tenet: Social work education has a pivotal responsibility and pragmatic role in providing serious, credible attention to the well-being of practitioners. Social work curricula must integrate teaching of self-care as a professional competency. This article provides philosophical rationale and practical strategies for doing so. Through comprehensive attention in implicit and explicit curricula, social work programs can prepare practitioners who can enact social work's long-standing mission of human rights, social justice, and human well-being. Everyone (e.g., faculty, field supervisors, administrators) has a role and responsibility. The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) has particular effect in setting standards for social work programs, and, by extension, the profession itself. Thus, the article concludes with a call for CSWE to include self-care in the accreditation standards core competencies required by all social work programs. The profession's future compels taking proactive, preventative action now. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the issue is presented, which presents the notion of self-care as an imperative part of the social work practice, noting themes to be presented within the issue including burnout, best practices, and organizational wellness.

Self-care can be an important tool in assuaging professional burnout, workplace stress, vicarious or secondary trauma, and other deleterious employment circumstances. Despite this importance, few studies have examined self-care among social work practitioners. This exploratory study examined the self-care practices of self-identified social workers (N = 2,934) throughout the United States. Primary data were collected with an electronic survey. Data indicate that social workers in the sample engage in moderate self-care practices. Analyses revealed group differences in self-care by several variables including geographic locale of participants' primary place of employment, race, educational level, and social work licensing status, among others. Significant predictors of self-care included perceived health status (self-report), education level, being a supervisor, and financial status. Overall, findings from this study indicate the need for a systemic response to improving self-care practices among social workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educating for human rights and justice requires attention to the well-being of those being prepared to pursue these aims. This article describes an MSW program's implementation of teaching self-care as a core practice skill. This curricular innovation stems from the increasing literature documenting the deleterious effects of burnout in professional helping and the need to address this concern in educational curricula. Further, this curricular change is a result of increased student exhaustion affecting academic performance and professional preparedness, and the ethical imperative to address this phenomenon. We describe specific components, strategies, and assignments in the curriculum as well as assessment of the curricular innovation. This curricular example is readily adaptable for other programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, social workers recognize the importance of self-care to practice. However, research examining self-care among social workers is nominal. Of particular paucity are works that explore self-care in international contexts. This exploratory study examined self-care among social workers (N = 200) in Slovakia. Findings indicate that participants engaged in moderate levels of self-care. Moreover, data indicated significant differences in self-care by health status, and number of weekly hours worked was a significant predictor of self-care. After a review of literature, this article explicates findings, identifies discussion points, and concludes by identifying implications for social work education, research, and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the promise of self-care in dealing with employee challenges, there is nominal research related to this topic, in general, and among the clinical social work workforce, specifically. This exploratory study examines self-compassion, self-care, and the predictive relationship between the two among a sample (N = 831) of clinical social workers practicing in one southeastern state. In so doing, this paper uniquely addresses several limitations in the current literature. Findings suggest that social work clinicians in this sample engaged in moderate amounts of self-compassion and self-care, respectively. As well, self-compassion proved to be a unique and significant predictor of both personal and professional self-care, respectively. Findings from this study suggest the need to more deftly support clinicians in engaging in self-compassion and self-care, which includes ongoing training, education, and skill development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Despite the importance of self-care to social workers, in general, and those employed in child welfare contexts, specifically, few studies have explicitly examined this area of inquiry. This research brief explores the personal and professional of social workers employed in child welfare (N = 623) in the United States (U.S.). Overall, findings indicate that participants engage in minimal amounts of self-care. Analyses revealed significant differences in self-care by Race , Education Level , Licensing Status , Marital Status , Supervision Status , Professional Organization Membership, and Financial Status, respectively. Findings indicate the need for more explicit attention to education and training related to self-care, and more organizational supports for child welfare workers. Despite the importance of self-care to child welfare workers, few studies have explicitly examined this area of inquiry (Bloomquist, Wood, Friedmeyer-Trainor, & Kim, 2015 ; Grise-Owens, Miller, & Eaves, 2016 ; Lee & Miller, 2013 ; Miller, Donohue-Dioh, Niu, & Shalash, 2018 ; Newell, 2018). This research brief explores the personal and professional of child welfare workers employed in child welfare (N = 623) in the United States (U.S.). After pithily examining relevant background information, this brief will explicate findings from this study and discuss salient implications derived from the data. Highlights • This research brief explores the self-care practices of child welfare workers (N = 623) in the United States. • Overall, findings indicate that participants engage in minimal amounts of self-care. • Findings indicate the need for more explicit attention to education/training and organizational supports related to self-care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indubitably, the challenges facing health-care social workers are becoming increasingly complex. Whilst these problematic professional circumstances compound the need for self-compassion among health-care social workers, few studies, if any, have explicitly examined self-compassion among this practitioner group. This cross-sectional study explored self-compassion among a sample of practitioners (N = 138) in one southeastern state. Results indicate that health-care social workers in this sample engage in self-compassion only moderately. Further, occupational and demographic/life characteristics (e.g., age, years practicing social work, average hours worked per week, health status, and relationship status, among others) are able to predict self-compassion scores. After a terse review of relevant literature, this paper will explicate findings from this study, discuss relevant points derived from said findings, and identify salient implication for health-care social work praxis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing interest in self-care, few studies have explicitly examined the self-care practices of healthcare social workers. Thisexploratorystudy investigated self-care among practitioners (N = 138) in one southeastern state. Overall, data suggest that healthcare social workers only moderately engaged in self-care. Additionally, analyses revealed significant differences in self-care practices by financial stability, overall health, and licensure status, respectively. Interestingly, perceived health status and current financial situation were significant predictors for overall self-care practices. After a brief review of the literature, this narrative will explicate findings, elucidate discussion points, identify salient implications, and conclude with areas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]