Changing habits
Taking time to look after yourself As social worker burnout becomes increasingly prevalent; we investigate some of the ways that you can look after your own health and wellbeing. we speak exclusively to Sam Cleaver, Director of Stoic Performance to find out how we can reduce our stress levels and manage our waistlines.
In October 2018, the British Association of Social Workers revealed that almost two-thirds (61%) of practitioners and managers were planning on leaving the profession within the next 16 months. With resourcing more challenging than ever before, employers need all of the help that they can get to proactively support the overall health and wellbeing of their staff. Health and fitness coach Sam Cleaver, Director of Stoic Performance believes that it's important to take a holistic approach to ensure that social work managers are looking after their teams effectively. As a qualified personal trainer and health coach, Sam regularly works with clients to help them understand the impact that ongoing stress can have on the body. He believes that the body can only cope with a certain amount of stress before it starts to have a detrimental effect on your overall health. Poor digestion, sleeplessness, and weight gain can all be indicators that the body is not coping, and in a highly-pressurised environment such as social work,
it’s no wonder that social workers are complaining of increasing health problems. In an exclusive chat with Social Work News, Sam explains how social workers can make small changes to improve their overall health and wellbeing.
Social Workers are notorious for their busy schedules and their stressful working day. What advice can you give to help someone reduce stress? There are many different facets to the nervous system, but in this context, we have the sympathetic side and the para-sympathetic side. Our sympathetic side is our ‘flight or fight’ response mode which is all based upon survival. If this side of our nervous system takes control, it explains why we may feel bloated or have digestive issues when stressed. In contrast, the para-sympathetic mode is the rest and digest side of the nervous system. It controls our
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stress levels, our sleep patterns, and our digestion. In an ideal world, we need to ensure that our nervous system spends up to 85% of our time in this mode. Because social work is such a hectic environment, it stands to reason that many social workers may be spending far too much time on the sympathetic side of the nervous system. This could lead to developing a variety of health concerns. It is possible to manipulate the body to revert to the para-sympathetic side – I often recommend “box breathing” to calm down. All you need to do is inhale for a count of four, hold for a count of four, exhale for a count of four and hold for a count of four – repeated ten times in a row. This will naturally calm your body down and help it reset back to the para-sympathetic state. I’d also recommend making use of a variety of free apps which can support meditation practices. Apps like Calm or Headspace are a great tool to use as they can enable you to take a few moments out of your day to focus upon yourself.
