Stress Prevalence in Social Work Practice with People Having Mental Disorders

Abstract

Social work is a new profession in Lithuania. Social work practice can be described as complex and heavy-duty, barely valued in the society and the result of it is hardly predicted. It is credible that social workers in practise with people having mental disorders encounter higher risk of stress prevalence compared to work with people having other social risks. However, this field has been little investigated in Lithuania. Scientific studies of foreign authors brought to light that stress prevalence in social work practice with people having mental disorders directly related to work overload, complexity of disability of clients [1], burnout [2], high professional requirements, quality and availability of supervision at workplace, unclearness of professional boundaries [3], lack of skills and knowledge [4]. The aim was to investigate stress prevalence in social work practice with people having mental disorders. As many as 110 social work practitioners from Western region of Lithuania participated in the research. Quantitative research was conducted using questionnaires. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 13.0 was applied for data procession. Research was carried out from September 2010 to January 2011. All social workers participating in the research were divided into two groups: working with people with mental disorders and working with people with other social risks. The results were compared in these groups. Research results revealed that stress prevalence in social work practice was rather common. Research results showed that the same volume of physical symptoms was experienced by social workers in practice with all social risk groups, while greater volume of psychical symptoms was experienced only by social workers in practice with people having mental disorders. Social workers in practice with people having mental disorders more often experienced fear, constant tension, depression, desperation than social workers working with other social risk groups. These findings confirm the results of researchers that social workers in practice with people having mental disorders more often faced physical and emotional burnout and higher stress prevalence at workplace [1, 2, 3, 4].

Keywords: stress, disability, social work.