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Self-Care

Child welfare professionals experience daily stress, trauma, and fatigue. Social services agencies are recognizing how important it is for their employees to focus on self-care and how it can impact their organization, especially with the increasing rates of turnover in this field. This page provides resources that identify guidance, research, and training on how child welfare professionals can focus on self-care.

Development Of A Trauma-informed Self-care Measure With Child Welfare Workers

Salloum & Choi & Stover (2018)

Children and Youth Services Review, 93

View Abstract

Addresses factors and tools that child welfare case managers and supervisors could use to assess, monitor, and improve trauma-informed self-care practices to help professionals who often face high-stress environments.

Examining Self-Care Among Individuals Employed in Social Work Capacities
Miller, Lianekhammy, & Grise-Owens (2018)
Advances in Social Work, 18(4)
Examines the self-care practices of individuals employed in social work capacities.  

Healing and Joy: Tools to Address Burnout and Increase Wellness in Tribal Child Welfare [Webinar]
Capacity Building Center for Tribes (2021)
Shares self-care techniques, reflexive breathing, icebreakers, team-building exercises, and online resources for professionals to avoid burnout.

Professional Wellness
National Association of Social Workers North Carolina Chapter
Provides information and resources to assist and guide professionals in health and well-being. 

Self-Care and Professional Quality of Life: Predictive Factors Among MSW Practitioners (PDF - 556 KB)
Bloomquist, Wood, Friedmeyer-Trainor, & Kim (2015)
Advances in Social Work, 16(2)
Explores the effects of self-care practices on professional quality of life and addresses burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and compassion satisfaction among child welfare practitioners.

Taking Care of Yourself: Putting Protective Factors Into Play for Yourself (PDF - 101 KB)
Center for the Study of Social Policy (2015)
Discusses the importance for child welfare professionals to take care of themselves and ways they can use the five protective factors to promote their own well-being. 

Trauma-Informed Yoga for Child Welfare Professionals [Video]
Crisafi
National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (2021)
Focuses on utilizing research-based, trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness practices to address signs of secondary traumatic stress or nervous system dysregulation caused by stress or burnout.

Workforce Resource: One-Page Summary - A Holistic Framework for Child Welfare Worker Well-Being (PDF - 362 KB)
National Child Welfare Workforce Institute
Identifies three areas that make up professional's well-being and how leaders within child welfare organizations can strategically and comprehensively support these areas to prioritize caseworker well-being.

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Spotlight On

Self-Care Infographic

National Child Welfare Workforce Institute

Self-Care Resources to Help Address Burnout and Increase Wellness in Tribal Child Welfare (PDF - 386 KB)

Capacity Building Center for Tribes (2020)

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