Eats me alive
Social workers reflect on practice in neoliberal contexts
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21495795 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Elizabeth Hendrix (0000-0001-7196-0576, University of Utah, corresponding author), Amanda Smith Barusch (University of Otago), Amanda Barusch (University of Otago), Christina Gringeri (0000-0002-2194-3812, University of Utah) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 161-173 |
| Publication date | 2021-02-17 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Work Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0261-5479 • E-ISSN: 1470-1227 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02615479.2020.1718635 |
| OpenAlex | W3001425116 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 24 |
| References cited | 25 |
Social workers regularly engage with people who have experienced traumatic events—such as domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, persecution, or armed conflict—but our understanding of how this work affects social workers themselves is still developing. Theories of burnout, vicarious trauma, and secondary traumatic stress illuminate the difficulty of trauma work, yet these approaches generally assign accountability for self-care to individual social workers, neglecting the contexts in which they operate—a response that reflects the neoliberal ideology of personal responsibility. In this article, we argue social workers charged with supporting those who experience trauma are themselves jeopardized by the organizational manifestations of neoliberalism. This article presents the reflections of social workers doing difficult work in neoliberal contexts. In-depth interviews were conducted with seven American social workers serving trauma-affected clients in non-clinical roles to better understand how they experienced their work. In their responses, participants underscored the centrality of organizational and systemic contexts. As one of our participants commented, 'The organizational stuff eats me alive!’ It calls on social work educators to prepare students to recognize, critically engage, and resist neoliberal elements of their practice contexts
Burnout · Compassion fatigue · Criminology · Ideology · Persecution · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Child Abuse and Trauma · Gender Studies · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Social Work Education and Practice · Social Work
Quiet Quitting
Engaging with Transformative Paradigms in Mental Health
Beyond “Glittering Hope”
‘Caring and connected’
Preparing students for the profession
Social work students and self-care
From individualised to collective action
Can a Paradigm Shift from Risk Management to Critical Reflection Improve Child-Inclusive Practice
Breaking the Boundaries Collective – A Manifesto for Relationship-based Practice
Professional identity as a barrier to inter-agency working? A meta-ethnography of research conducted with professionals working in UK children’s services
Australian Social Workers’ Understandings of Technology in Practice
Grounding responsibilization
Self-care is a social justice issue
Social workers and the neoliberal values of personal responsibility and self-sufficiency
How Can Critical Reflection Improve Social Work Practice with Children and Families
If I’m not real, I’m Not Having an Impact’
Self-care in social work
Mental Health Social Work Practice
You Say One Thing Wrong, and Your Children Are Gone’
Living without privilege in Czech society
The Responsibility of Self-Care in Social Work
Transforming Residential Disability Services in Czechia Under Neoliberalism
Caring by communities in times of crisis
Critical Reflection
Social work, stress and burnout
Social Work Education and the Neo-Liberal Challenge
Vicarious traumatization
Trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the Community
National Estimates of Exposure to Traumatic Events and PTSD Prevalence Using DSM-IV and DSM-5 Criteria
Relationship of Childhood Abuse and Household Dysfunction to Many of the Leading Causes of Death in Adults
Knowing where you stand
Social work and macro-economic neoliberalism
Questioning Tales of ‘Ordinary Magic’
Prevalence of Secondary Traumatic Stress among Social Workers
The ‘rebirth of liberalism
Social Work in the Workfare Regime
Brief History of Neoliberalism
The Practice of Qualitative Research
Job Burnout
Backdating German neoliberalism
| Unique citing works | 24 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4,8 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 24 |