Definition Of Resilience In Social Work

Resilience in social workers.

Definition of resilience in social work. Adult social care staff need to be resilient to help them to cope better under pressure and continue to deliver high quality care and support. Emotional resilience is a coping mechanism that helps individuals to manage high pressure stressful situations. Sometimes described as inner strength being emotionally resilient means that you can adapt to distressing or stressful situations rebounding from these challenges afterwards feeling stronger for doing so. Research in resilience and its role in social work practice consistently refers to the idea of an innate strength or capacity available to humans enabling recovery from trauma and stress.

Resilient social workers rely on habits of mind and actions to foster attitudes of open curiosity and awareness of judgment that sustain them through the vicissitudes of their often difficult work. A focus on resilience allows us to move from the deficit perspective posited by avoidance of burnout to a sustainable framework based on day to day positive practices. Within contemporary social work practice therefore support should be provided to enable children and young people to develop and be resilient when faced with adversity and trauma in their life. Jim greer principal lecturer in social work teeside university.

Resilience is a person s capacity to respond to pressure and the demands of daily life. Resilience can be described as the ability to bounce back from stressful or negative situations and is associated with improved physical and psychological health and less psychological distress marsten 2001. Working in social care can be hugely rewarding. Finding a definition of resilience in the context of social work requires us first to consider that social work involves emotional.

Resilience is described by fonagy et al 1994 as an ability to achieve a normal standard of development within a challenging situation. Dictionary definitions include concepts like flexibility suppleness durability strength speed of recovery and buoyancy. In short resiliency affects our ability to bounce back. The timely capacity of individuals and groups family community country and enterprise to be more generative during times of stability and to adapt reorganize and grow in response to disruption.

It also looks at the development of an approach to practice that seeks to identify and strengthen individual coping strategies. The importance of caring for the self as well as for others keynote presentation dr louise grant university of bedfordshire resource item.