"Man kan undra vad man utsätter sig själv för egentligen"
Socialsekreterares reflektioner kring psykisk påfrestning i yrket och hur den kan hanteras
The focus of this essay is to further investigate and describe psychological strains experienced by child welfare workers. The method used was qualitative interviews, two group interviews. The research aimed to understand how child welfare workers were affected and handled the psychological strains generated by work through theory of coping and symbolic interactionism where humans are viewed as pragmatic actors. The research showed, as previous studies shown, that the child welfare workers experience a great deal of psychological strains generated by high turnover in staff and pressuring work demands. The child welfare workers felt inadequate and alone in their work tasks and experienced stress and anxiety. Coping was mainly used to regulate the emotional response of stressful situations instead of changing them, which is an effect of the limited possibilities to affect the working conditions. The support from colleagues was of limited resource but also an important coping strategy. The emotional strain of the high turnover in staff made the child welfare workers distanced from new staff, which leaves the workers lacking more support. The authors of this essay believes that lack of support and increased workload, affected by the high turnover in staff, results in staff leaving child welfare.