by Erlene Grise-Owens, EdD, LCSW, MSW, MRE, & Justin “Jay” Miller, PhD, MSW, CSW
March is Nationwide Social Work Month, with a 2023 theme “Social Work Breaks Barriers.” It’s additionally time for our annual State of Self-Care in Social Work commentary. This theme of barrier-breaking evokes essential and essential consideration of how the career should explicitly and truly make self-care “paramount”—as the revised NASW Code of Ethics proclaims.
Boundaries Inside
A few of the greatest boundaries social work faces are inner to the career. As an alternative of solely breaking down boundaries exterior the career, let’s look inside. One such barrier is the pervasive tendency to pit micro towards macro—as bifurcated both/or and linear hierarchy. This false dichotomy and hegemonic hierarchy are perniciously current within the multi-faceted boundaries between self-care, macro methods, and the worldwide mission of the career. A few of these boundaries embrace: persistent myths about self-care, problematic conceptualizations, unquestioned assumptions that dismiss the significance of it, and lack of competence in working towards self-care. These boundaries are critical and consequential. These hindrances stymie our career’s affect and progress. They hurt practitioners as human beings.
Social work is devoted to overarching, laudable goals of human rights, well-being, social justice, and environmental sustainability. The NASW Social Work Month toolkit highlights the essential and difficult roles that social employees have in “breaking boundaries” to realize these goals. But, we should acknowledge and tackle the toll “breaking boundaries” has for practitioners and, extra broadly, the career. The boundaries associated to self-care should be totally acknowledged and explicitly addressed.
A methods method and demanding pondering are core features of social work. Utilizing these features—as a substitute of merely breaking down boundaries—let’s reframe this “barrier” by way of strengthening connections. Oftentimes, this shift can begin with altering our language.
A Large, Little Phrase: And
To rise to the calls for, meet the goals of the career, and flourish as practitioners, we should join the AND of self-care. Making self-care paramount permits us to foster the wellness and resilience to remain within the arenas that require our dedication, intervention, and experience. It helps nurture the that means, function, and pleasure that sustains us within the work and to flourish as totally human.
The large, little phrase “and” gives the conceptualization essential to create connections that nurture, broaden, and thrive. With this essential, impactful reframe, our work engages consumer/trigger/neighborhood and wholistic self-care. With this connection, we pursue organizational wellness and empowering self-care. By prolonged connection, international well-being and built-in self-care are inherently linked. Via conceptualization that acknowledges the intrinsic relationship, we join ecological justice and individualized self-care.
These “boundaries” should be remodeled into connections. Our work and well-being should not mutually unique; they’re inextricably related. It’s not hierarchical; it’s systemically private, and skilled, and planetary.
Past Boundaries: Self-Care And…
As famous above, social work’s mission is complete and essential. And, our dedication to human rights should embrace the rights of the person practitioner. Justice for all consists of simply us—the human practitioners, as related with our methods/environments.
Self-care is important to foster a world wherein boundaries should not merely damaged nor are practitioners battered and burnt out by battling these boundaries. Quite, with self-care as a vital systemic thread, connectedness is strengthened and our career’s mission is, as properly. This connectedness requires paramount consideration, prioritization, and intervention in all arenas.
Definitely, we should persistently advocate for and put money into systemic changes that promote practitioner well-being. Social work applications should educate college students within the competence of self-care and put together practitioners who lead organizational wellness efforts. And, organizations should construct methods that inherently prioritize practitioner well-being. And, skilled organizations should promote skilled requirements, practices, and assets that foster self-care/wellness.
And, expensive reader, the systemic level of entry the place you could have probably the most energy is together with your self. We every should prioritize our personal well-being. Put money into and demand upon your individualized self-care. Turn into a devoted, engaged professional in self-care. Be a constant, compassionate fanatic of self-care—as a part of your work and as an inherent human proper.
In social work month and past, let’s explicitly and truly make self-care paramount. And,—past the boundaries—connections of human rights, justice, wellness, and sustainability can flourish.
Erlene Grise-Owens, EdD, LCSW, MSW, MRE, is a Companion in The Wellness Group, ETC. This LLC gives analysis, coaching, and session for organizational wellness and practitioner well-being. Dr. Grise-Owens is lead editor of The A-to-Z Self-Care Handbook for Social Workers and Other Helping Professionals. As a former college member and graduate program director, she and a small (however mighty!) group of colleagues applied an initiative to advertise self-care as a part of the social work training curriculum. Beforehand, she served in scientific and administrative roles. She has expertise with navigating toxicity and dysfunction, up-close and private! Likewise, as an educator, she noticed college students enter the sector and rapidly burn out. As a devoted social employee, she believes the well-being of practitioners is a matter of social justice and human rights. Thus, she is on a mission to advertise self-care and wellness!
Dr. Justin “Jay” Miller, PhD, MSW, CSW, is the Dean, Dorothy A. Miller Analysis Professor in Social Work Training, and Director of the Self-Care Lab within the School of Social Work on the College of Kentucky. You possibly can observe his work by way of Twitter @DrJayMiller1.
