A social worker's description of compassion satisfaction
Start Date
29-4-2022 2:15 PM
Location
Alter Hall Poster Session 1 - 3rd floor
Abstract
This research study is an examination of a specific aspect of mental health in social workers: compassion satisfaction. Previous research has found that social workers experience many stressors within their daily work as a helping profession such as burnout, compassion fatigue, etc. that can have an effect on compassion satisfaction. This research study aims to answer the question of how social workers would describe their compassion satisfaction in their day to day work as a helping profession despite the various stressors they encounter daily. This research study was conducted via a survey, in which participants were asked to answer a variety of questions related to compassion satisfaction with a sliding scale. They were also asked to identify their gender and department. Once the survey was completed, answers were coded based on a scale from the original survey the questions were selected from. The population for this study was 23 licensed social workers from Lighthouse Youth and Family Services in which a sample of 16 licensed social workers was used. The response rate was 32% (5 respondents). The survey data showed that overall, social workers at Lighthouse Youth and Family Services displayed a moderate to high level of compassion satisfaction despite their daily stressors that come with the helping profession. There were a few variations of scores based on the department, so that is why results were presented as moderate to high levels of compassion satisfaction. This supports previous research findings that despite the challenging work that comes with the profession, social workers persevere through it to make change in the world.
A social worker's description of compassion satisfaction
Alter Hall Poster Session 1 - 3rd floor
This research study is an examination of a specific aspect of mental health in social workers: compassion satisfaction. Previous research has found that social workers experience many stressors within their daily work as a helping profession such as burnout, compassion fatigue, etc. that can have an effect on compassion satisfaction. This research study aims to answer the question of how social workers would describe their compassion satisfaction in their day to day work as a helping profession despite the various stressors they encounter daily. This research study was conducted via a survey, in which participants were asked to answer a variety of questions related to compassion satisfaction with a sliding scale. They were also asked to identify their gender and department. Once the survey was completed, answers were coded based on a scale from the original survey the questions were selected from. The population for this study was 23 licensed social workers from Lighthouse Youth and Family Services in which a sample of 16 licensed social workers was used. The response rate was 32% (5 respondents). The survey data showed that overall, social workers at Lighthouse Youth and Family Services displayed a moderate to high level of compassion satisfaction despite their daily stressors that come with the helping profession. There were a few variations of scores based on the department, so that is why results were presented as moderate to high levels of compassion satisfaction. This supports previous research findings that despite the challenging work that comes with the profession, social workers persevere through it to make change in the world.
