The Culture of Compassion in Social Service and Academic Settings:My Personal Experience
Main Article Content
Keywords
culture of compassion, self-care, productivity, agency culture, burnout
Abstract
This article uses the Scholarly Personal Narrative method to explore the author’s own experience of compassion in social service agencies and academic settings. The idea of building a culture of compassion was born from this author’s experience of “agency culture,” the culture of different academic settings and the promotion of self-care and productivity. Lessons learned from this inquiry showed that self-care, as a concept in human services institutions, is an individualistic approach that does not solve the systemic/cultural problems in an agency. Further revealed is the fact that productivity is a utilitarian approach applied to human issues that dehumanizes the interaction between social workers, their colleagues, and clients. The author thus contends that creating a culture of compassion is an essential element that agencies and academic settings need to include if they wish to decrease social worker burnout and the negative impact of vicarious trauma and increase longevity.
References
Brown, B. (2010). The power of vulnerability. Ted Conference, Houston. https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_the_power_of_vulnerability
Charter for Compassion. (2021). The charter. https://charterforcompassion.org/charter
Crowder, R. & Sears, A. (2017). Building resilience in social workers: An exploratory study on the impacts of a mindfulness-based intervention. Australian Social Work, 70(1), 17-29. https://doi.org/10.1080/0312407X.2016.1203965
Diaconescu, M. (2015) Burnout, secondary trauma and compassion fatigue in social work. Revista de Asistenţ Social, 3, 57‑63. http://www.swreview.ro/index.pl/burnout_secondary_trauma_and_compassion_fatigue_in_social_work
DuBois, B. & Krogsrud-Miley, K. (2014). Social Work: An empowering profession. Pearson Education, Inc. .
Frankl, V. (2014). Man’s search for meaning. Beacon Press.
Gilbert, P. (2019). Explorations into the nature and function of compassion. Current Opinion in Psychology, 28, 108-114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2018.12.002
Goleman, D. (2007). Why aren’t we more compassionate. TED. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mefC12rQovI
Kinman, G. & Grant, L. (2020). Emotional demands, compassion and mental health in social workers. Occupational Medicine, 70, 89-94. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqz144
Kolodiejchuk, B. (2010). Where there is love, there is God: Her path to closer union with God and greater love for others. Random House, Inc.
Leake, R., Rienks, S., & Obermann, A. (2017). A deeper look at burnout in the child welfare workforce. Human Services Organizations Management, Leadership & Governance, 41(5), 492-502. https://doi.org/10.1080/23303131.2017.1340385
Lizano, E. L., Godoy, A. J., & Allen, N. (2019). Spirituality and worker well-being: Examining the relationship between spirituality, job burnout, and work engagement. Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 38(2), 197-216. https://doi.org/10.1080/15426432.2019.1577787
Makkai, K. (2018). Evaluating the level of burnout among healthcare professionals. Social Analysis, 8, 23-39. https://doi.org/10.2478/aussoc-2018-0002
McClelland, L.E. & Vogus, T.J. (2019). Infusing, sustaining, and replenishing compassion in health care organizations through compassion practices. Health Care Management Review, 1-12. http://doi.org/10.1097/HMR.0000000000000240
Merriam-Webster. (2018). Definition of compassion. Merriam-Webster, Inc. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/compassion
Mintz, S., & McNeil, S. (2018). Digital History. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu
Nash, R. J. (2019). Liberating scholarly writing: The power of personal narrative. Information Age Publishing, INC.
Nash, R. J. & Bradley, D. L. (2011). Me-search and re-search: A guide for writing scholarly personal narrative manuscripts. Information Age Publishing, INC.
Nash, R. J. & Viray, S. (2013). Our stories matter: Liberating the voice of marginalized students through Scholarly Personal Narrative writing. Peter Lang Publishing.
National Association of Social Workers, NASW. (2021). Code of Ethics. https://www.socialworkers.org/about/ethics/code-of-ethics/code-of-ethics-english
Ng, L. & Carney, M. A. (2017). Scholarly personal narrative in the SoTL tent. Teaching and Learning Inquiry, 5(1), 1-13. http://dx.doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.5.1.10
Ricard, M. (2014). How to let altruism be your guide. TEDGlobal. https://www.ted.com/talks/matthieu_ricard_how_to_let_altruism_be_your_guide?language=en
Rigoni, D. (2002). Teaching what can’t be taught: The Shaman’s strategy. A Scarecrow Education Book.
Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching. (2018). United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/seven-themes-of-catholic-social-teaching.cfm
Tutu, D. (1999). No future without forgiveness. Doubleday.
Workplace Health Program Definition and Description. (2018). Centers for Disease Control. https://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/pdf/Workplace-Health-Program-Definition-and-Description.pdf