Self Care Plan Social Sciences Essay Research Paper

SELF CARE PLAN
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Introduction
Social workers' careers involve caring for families and patients who have faced the extremes of stress as well as trauma. Numerous of the families and patients who look for assistance have experienced battery as a consequence of circumstances and events that are beyond their control, whereas others strive with the results of their actions that they did not expect. Some of these families and patients can be assisted, whereas others cannot be assisted. Owing to the higher prevalence of social work that deals with patients who have stress and trauma, there exists a possibility that many of them shall experience countertransference, burnout, compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, and vicarious trauma. Therefore, this paper will present how countertransference, burnout, compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, and vicarious trauma impact social work practice, social workers, and clients.
Vicarious Trauma
Vicarious trauma is whereby the self of a trauma assistant transforms to result in an empathetic involvement with traumatic experiences and clients (Hesse, 2002). The clients may have experienced traumatic events like the death of a loved one, emotional and physical abuse, sexual abuse, accidents, natural disasters, and war. When an individual faces trauma, they tend to believe that safety does not exist and that the world cannot be anticipated or meaningful. The persons with trauma cannot process the trauma they have faced implying that the impacts of that trauma shall always go on bothering the person until they look for assistance. All persons can be affected by trauma since no one is immune to it, including social workers. Social workers who assist clients who have experienced trauma face the risk of facing vicarious traumatization (VT). Handling clients with serious traumatic experiences overwhelm social works to cause vicarious trauma.
VT manifests in numerous ways like inability to escape a patient's trauma, challenges in establishing boundaries among personal and work life, social isolation, hopelessness and depression, change in the view of the world, others, and self. Social workers experiencing vicarious trauma may also show mood disorders, anxiety, and a lack of coping skills (Newell, & MacNeil, 2010).
Social workers may address vicarious trauma through numerous strategies. They include resting, exercising, dieting, creativity, and contact with nature through events like hiking and boating among others. Also, reducing the number of clients a social worker exposes themselves to helps lower vicarious trauma (Hesse, 2002). Lastly, professional connection via support groups, training, consultation, and supervision is helpful.
Burnout
Burnout has been witnessed in the social work profession. Burnout is a spiritual, psychological, emotional, and physical exhaustion that results from acute exposure to clients suffering from stress or trauma (Newell & MacNeil, 2010). Burnout comes with hopelessness and the social worker always has a challenging time carrying out their duties in an effective manner. Burnout has serious impacts on the social worker, their client, and the organization. Burnout involves specific areas that involve, "emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment" (Newell & MacNeil, 2010, p. 59). Emotional exhaustion is a state that happens when a social worker's emotional resources become finished by the acute anticipations, demand, and needs of organizations, supervisors, and clients (Newell & MacNeil, 2010). Depersonalization is the adverse and detached reactions of clients and coworkers. The lowered sense of personal accomplishment is when social workers feel inadequate when their patients do not react to treatment.
Social workers can address burnout by making time for self-care activities like relaxing, exercising, and eating the right diet. Also, they can seek support from the organization, supervisors, and colleagues. Lastly, they can address burnout by changing the population they care for can assist them.
Compassion Fatigue
Compassion fatigue is a syndrome that has symptoms of secondary stress as well as burnout that comes from the utilization of empathy when handling clients who suffer (Newell & MacNeil, 2010). Combining chronic empathy with daily challenges like stressful organizations and billing issues may cause compassion fatigue (Newell & MacNeil, 2010).
Social workers can handle compassion fatigue by balancing their work and social life, having assertive training, applying coping skills like meditation, being creative, and taking the right diet.
Secondary Trauma
Secondary trauma describes the cumulative and destructive impacts that occur to social workers following their chronic exposure to clients with traumatic experiences (Michalopoulos & Aparicio, 2011). It adversely affects the social worker's self-sense and can result in continuous symptoms of terror, rage, grief, anger, and posttraumatic stress disorder (Michalopoulos & Aparicio, 2011). Also, social workers show secondary trauma through suicidal thoughts, flashbacks, irritability, anxiety, nightmares, and disturbed sleep among others.
Social workers address secondary trauma by reducing the number of trauma cases, seeking support from the organization, supervisors, and colleagues, and seeking training on PTSD (Bober & Regehr, 2005).
Countertransference 
Countertransference is the response to the patient's transference whereby the social worker directs their feelings unknowingly to the patient. How countertransference is applied to the patient's case can help or become a problem.
A social worker may notice themselves responding positively to a patient who reminds them of a colleague or friend. Also, they make use of a parental tone with a patient who reminds them of the social worker who handled their child's case.
A skilled social worker can acknowledge their feelings and mention them during a session. The social worker may utilize their feelings towards the patient to comprehend how other individuals in the patient's life feel. When utilized appropriately, it can offer insight into the people in the patient's life. However, when such feelings are unrecognized, they can cause threats to the therapeutic relationship and objectives of the therapeutic session.
After countertransference is realized, it is significant for the social worker to recognize and work through the feelings. This can be helpful or problematic. It is, therefore significant for the social worker to comprehend the role countertransference play and address the f...