Exploring the self-compassion of health-care social workers: How do they fare?

Joann Lianekhammy, J. Jay Miller, Jacquelyn Lee, Natalie Pope, Sheila Barnhart, Erlene Grise-Owens

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)563-580
Number of pages18
JournalSocial Work in Health Care
Volume57
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 9 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, © 2018 Taylor & Francis.

Keywords

  • Health-care social work
  • self-compassion

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Community and Home Care
  • Psychiatry and Mental health

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