Dr Sarah Rose S.Rose@napier.ac.uk
Lecturer
Dr Sarah Rose S.Rose@napier.ac.uk
Lecturer
Pearse McCusker
Mary Mitchell
Autumn Roesch-Marsh
Miao Jian
Lora Petrova
In recent years, the self-care of social workers has become a focus for research and practice in recognition of the demands of the social work role. As part of a research project to explore ways to embed self-care into a social work degree programme at a Scottish university, a narrative literature review was undertaken to examine existing research on self-care for social work students and practitioners. This article reports on the findings from this review, including the multiplicity of ways in which self-care is defined and conceptualized, how it is practised by social work students and practitioners, and the evidence base for identified approaches to self-care. Broader conceptualizations of self-care are explored, which encompass philosophical constructions of the ‘self’ and the impact of social and cultural norms on self-identity. It is argued that a cultural shift is required in the conceptualization and practice of self-care in social work to include collective and political approaches alongside individual strategies thereby promoting the social justice and anti-oppressive aims of the social work profession. Connections between self-care and ethical practice are highlighted, and further reinforce the need for self-care to be an imperative in social work.
Rose, S., McCusker, P., Mitchell, M., Roesch-Marsh, A., Jian, M., & Petrova, L. (online). Self-care in social work: An imperative or beyond reach?. British Journal of Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcae204
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Dec 5, 2024 |
Online Publication Date | Jan 15, 2025 |
Deposit Date | Jan 27, 2025 |
Publicly Available Date | Jan 27, 2025 |
Journal | The British Journal of Social Work |
Print ISSN | 0045-3102 |
Electronic ISSN | 1468-263X |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcae204 |
Keywords | ethical practice, self-care, self-identity, social justice, social work education, social work practice |
Public URL | http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/4042928 |
Self-Care In Social Work: An Imperative Or Beyond Reach?
(832 Kb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Creating a Culture of Resilience for Social Workers
(2021)
Journal Article
About Edinburgh Napier Research Repository
Administrator e-mail: repository@napier.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2025
Advanced Search