Content area
Abstract
Social workers comprise the largest group of professional practitioners in mental health settings and they work with difficult populations in the most challenging environments. Personal issues as well as environmental stressors may contribute to the problem of professional impairment. Social workers who are experiencing impairment may harm clients and cause other problems that may affect the profession. Therefore it is germane and important for the profession to understand the risk and protective factors associated with problems with professional functioning (impairment) so that strategies for prevention and intervention may be developed. A new measurement tool, the Inventory of Professional Functioning (IPF) was developed to measure impairment.
Six factors associated with problems with professional functioning were also measured: early family experiences, role identity, substance use, depression, relationship problems, and distress. Four protective factors were measured: self-esteem and coping, social support, education, and organizational wellness.
A random sample of 1,250 licensed social workers in Kentucky was invited by mailed postcard to complete an anonymous Internet survey and 215 responded, yielding a response rate of 17%. A multiple mediated model was developed to examine which risk and protective factors had the most impact on impairment among the sample. The final model included early family experiences, substance use, depression, and relationship problems as the most explanatory risk factors, and self-esteem and coping, social support, and organizational wellness as the most important mediators. Combined, these risk and protective factors explained 68% of the variance in impairment.
Conservatively 35% of the sample experienced problems in the workplace (impairment), 13% had problems with substance use, 9% were depressed, 43% were distressed, and 15% had relationship problems. Social workers reported high levels of social support (83%) and self-esteem and coping (60%), and only 18% reported optimal working conditions.
This study confirmed that social workers experience impairment and that higher levels of self-esteem and coping, social support, and organizational wellness protected social workers against problems with substance use, depression and relationship problems. The findings are important so the profession can find ways to prevent and reduce impairment through interventions, education about impairment, and innovative research.
