A holistic framework of resilience for social workers

Although much research has been conducted on the resilience of social workers, little has focused on workers in adult services specifically. Interviews were conducted with twenty-eight social workers in local authority adult services in Scotland to explore how they maintained and enhanced their resilience. Nine social workers completed diary entries reflecting on their day-to-day experience of resilience and eight interviews were carried out with social work managers for an overview of how resilience may be enhanced within organizations. Data were analysed thematically. The findings suggest that social workers felt equipped to manage the emotional nature of engaging with people receiving services and saw this as the essence of their role. Organizational demands were identified as a significant source of adversity. Based on the findings, a holistic framework of resilience is presented comprising of the domains of personal, relational, cultural, and structural factors, while recognizing that these are interwoven. A key finding is the connection between the resilience of social workers and ethical practice. Thus, professional integrity is identified as a concept which unites the four domains and underpins the resilience of social workers. As the model is not prescriptive, it may be of use across social work disciplines.