Context and relationship: defining resilience in health social workers

Dr Carole AdamsonSchool of Counselling, Human Services and Social Work

University of AucklandNew Zealand

c.adamson@auckland.ac.nz

Liz Beddoe, University of AucklandAllyson Davys, WINTEC, Hamilton

Research into the resilience of social workers

• Theoretical perspectives on resilience – a move from a focus on the individual towards relational characteristics; from pathology to a dynamic, meaning-making and contextualised process

• Significant research on service user resilience not yet fully matched by focus on ourselves

• Potential to strengthen arguments for supervision, other professional supports & organisational responsibilities

• Impetus for ongoing curriculum design focused on developing robust social work graduates

The research projects• Mental health, physical health and social work student

supervisors (Adamson, Beddoe & Davys)• Semi-structured, qualitative interviews (27)• Self-defining the concept of resilience• Participants initially defined resilience as a personal

characteristics but all then ‘unpacked’ it as a strongly contextual and relational construct

• Literature review and research findings both suggest a three part framework that interrelates self, context and mediating factors

• Linking feature between these factors is self-awareness, capacity to reflect and make meaning

Professional identity

Coping behaviours & relational skills

Supervision & peer support

Attributes

Personal history &

sensitisation

Moral & ethical code

Organisational structures

Political & legal frameworks

Mediating factors

Work-life balance

Developmental learning

Knowledge, education & theory

Self Practice Context

Future imperatives (1)• Social work education:– the research suggests the need for assessing,

developing & sustaining mindfulness and reflection – Using the ‘big picture’ of theory to assist reflective

meaning-making– The centrality of practice learning

• The relational and the reflective space in practice:– Importance of supervision as a space to reflect, on

make linkages and process experience– Organisational contexts & systems have crucial role

responsibility for determining resilience as an outcome of professional activity

Future imperatives (2)

• Defining the social work role in relation to other professionals and the public image of social work

• And finally: clinical/practice focus of social workers – thinking about the ‘other’: wellbeing is linked to professional identity & role and the wellbeing of others

Resilience as a fluid & dynamic, contextually-dependent process:

“What holds me firm [is] client-centredness and transparency of practice ... buttressed by the strong connection that I have with social work values and my legitimacy in terms of the social structures around me. So in my job description, the organisation I work for, the legislation that has certain expectations of me, [these] orient me in terms of not only my professional identity but my personal one as well and it’s that strong sense of ethic ... [that allows me] to go home and feel like despite a lot of the messages I’ve received on that day, that on a cognitive level I can say ‘well, I’ve done a good job’.”

‘Chris’, Mental Health

Publication for this study

• Beddoe, L., Davys, A., & Adamson, C. (2011). ‘Educating resilient practitioners’. Social Work Education, 1-18. doi:10.1080/02615479.2011.644532

• Two other publications pending by same authors.

Kia ora and thank you!

The New Zealand silver fern