Känslomässiga utmaningar i socialt arbete ? vad betyder strategier och yrkeserfarenhet?
Social workerMentally demanding workEmotionally challenging workStrategiesSocialsekreterarePsykiskt krävande arbeteKänslomässigt utmanande arbeteStrategier
The aim of this study was to gain a greater understanding of what social workers perceive to be mentally demanding and emotionally challenging work, and which strategies they use to handle it. I chose to interview six social workers, three of them had long experience of social work, and three of them had worked for less than a year. The justification for this choice wasthat I wanted to interview people with different experience of social work over time, to be able to see possible differences in what was perceived as mentally demanding and emotionally challenging work, and how it was handled. The social workers were interviewed with a semi structured interview manual.The results showed that the organization of the social service is not fitted to the work that social workers execute. This means that what is perceived as mentally demanding and emotionally challenging work largely depends on this. Experience of the profession does not necessarily affect what is perceived as mentally demanding and emotionally challenging work. However, longer work experience seems to benefit a social workers choice of strategies. This means that mentally demanding and emotionally challenging work in some cases is better handled by social workers with longer experience of the profession. The organization of the workplace can also affect which coping strategies that are being used, for example is time for reflection during working hours beneficial for the employees.