Improving An Employee 's Stress Level Is Through Supervision

Social workers react to reports and take those in danger of neglect to a safer environment. “Being a social worker isn’t the easiest job to do, to succeed you have to be mentally strong and actually look forward to going to work” (Martinez). As a social worker you view the world differently from the cases you handle in an everyday bases

Social Care Supervision refers to the strategies and body of service done within a social care plant in order to improve on the level of performance of the social care workers. Supervision is a critical idea in any social or structured society in which services of high quality and demand are being offered. Many social health care centers in the world are in need of equitable service delivery programs that will oversee a fruitful service reception by the clients. As such, Social Care Supervision refers to this body of knowledge and strategies used to support and instill hard work, quality delivery of products and services, together with a continuum of good delivery of goods and services to the clients (Gray & Brown 2010, p. 45-85).

Plan improvements to the identification and approach to dealing with workplace stress and conflict in own area of responsibility

Social workers deal with intense situations daily. It is important that social workers are aware of how they are affected by these interactions. Priscilla Dass-Brailsford explains in her book, that countertransference, vicarious trauma (VT), secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue and satisfaction, and burnout are all different ways that counselors can be affected (Dass-Brailsford, 2007). This is where it is important for social workers to have a plan of self-care and stress management resources to use.

Supervision has been defined as: “an accountable process which supports, assures and develops the knowledge, skills and values of an individual, group or team. The purpose is to improve the quality of their work to achieve agreed objectives and outcomes. In social care and children’s services this should optimise the capacity of people who use services to lead independent and fulfilling lives”. (National Occupational Standard on Supervision developed by Skills for Care and Development and CWD

All child protective services caseworkers are at all time expected to adhere not only to SC DSS policies and procedures, but all interactions with children and their families must be guided by the Child protective services imperatives and these imperatives are realistic and goals set forth by the agency are achievable. Weekly self-monitoring and supervisory monitoring allow for individuals to achieve and adhere to the performance standards and more importantly to assure that all children are safe. Oversight of worker safety and child safety are at the upmost importance of agency staff, although at times many caseworkers can note times where they personally did not feel

1. Understand the purpose of professional supervision in health and social care or children and young people’s work settings.

The “Models of Supervision: Parallel Processes and Honest Relationships” by Dr. Lawrence Shulman was very helpful, informative and challenging. It was an important podcast that covers the importance of supervision in the social work profession. It was enlightening for me to pay attention to various aspects of the supervision process. Dr. Shulman stated the need for establishing a good relationship between the supervisor and the social worker or clients. This relationship should be built on trust, respect, honesty and caring to obtain successful result and outcome in the field of social work. Also, in the supervision process is very important to set clear and appropriate boundaries between the supervisor and social worker. The supervision is also about that the supervisor cares about the social worker as much as he/she cares about the clients. Dr. illustrated also in this

Maurice William’s understands that social workers get tired because of their relentless job responsibilities, therefore, she makes sure they don’t experience burn out since it is her responsibility to keep the families intact (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011). Since she is not out in the field visiting the homes, she puts her faith in her upper management team to be able to listen and pay attention to any problems or potential future problems (Laureate Education, Inc. 2011). Since she is unable to be out in the field, Williams uses her supervisory skills to train her staff to be able to identify potential problems and also to report back to her what the problems are. If there were problems out in the field (i.e., foster parents, foster children), she shoulders the full responsibility to make sure that the problems are addressed and resolved, or modify changes that are in the best interest of the children.

To help reduce stress for myself, even through I know its quite common practice for most managers I would write down a list of all my tasks and then put them in priority order according to timescales, importance and whether I could or could not delegate the task I would also consider how long they might take, having a list especially when I am feeling stressed helps me focus and ticking areas off can have a positive effect on me as the list reduces.

It is evident that the relationship between work stress and mental health has been established by numerous research studies. As discussed in Koesky (1993), the fact that all jobs involve some degree of stress makes it all the more alarming as to the level of stress experienced by individuals working in the human services. That is, given that these individuals are heavily involved in the lives of others, they often develop mental health symptoms that are characteristic of work-related stressors. In fact, “This involvement, which requires caring commitment and empathic responding, places workers at risk for a special type of strain commonly referred to as 'burnout'” (Koesky, 1993, p. 319).

Any work environment can have stressful aspects that can negatively affect the employees’ performance and may lead to burnout. Oftentimes when employees are stressed or burnout their commitment at the job may begin to weaken and they may lose satisfaction. Many organizations have recognized that workers burnout is the result of aggravated chronic work stressors and embodied by enervation and inefficacy. This author will discuss the impact of stress and worker burnout on organizations. Moreover, this author will consider the implication of stress and worker burnout on the employee, as well as the short- and long-term productivity of a business.

Supervision in social work is defined by Barker (1999) as an administrative and educational process used extensively in social agencies to help social workers further develop and refine their skills, enhance staff morale, and provide quality assurance for the clients. The short term objective of supervision is to provide workers with the work structure and agency resources which help to increase workers knowledge and skills to do their jobs effectively and professionally. The long term objective of supervision is to provide clients the most efficient service possible, consistent with agency policies and procedures.

Studies from different parts of the world made by different health organizations have showed that long working hours and pressured work lead to stress which affects the employees mentally and physically and leads indirectly to low productivity levels. Not only stress, but it can cause a lot more of health issues like extreme fatigue including sleepiness, poor concentration, and increased susceptibility to illness. These symptoms can a have a noticed effect on the general productivity of an organization.

According to Elkin and Rosch (1990) workplace related stress in a major problem in the U.S. and it creates a major expense for corporations. Koeske, Kirk, and Koeske (1993) indicate that all jobs have some level of stress but jobs that are in the human services have additional stressors because they “derive from intense involvement in the lives of others”. (p.319). They also refer to the type of stress experienced by individuals working in human services as “burnout” (Koeske, Kirk, and Koeske, 1993, p.319). Another factor that can influence our stress level is how we handle life’s demands. There are different ways of reacting to the situations we face every day of our lives. We have all heard of expressions such as ‘road rage’ and ‘going postal’. These are terms that we have come to identified with violent reactions to stressors caused by situations all of us face every day. How many of us have experiences in the road that