”Det var min närmsta arbetsledare och min chef som gav mig det emotionella stödet, som hade störst betydelse” : En kvalitativ studie om det emotionella stödets betydelse i samband med socionomers återgång i arbete efter sjukskrivning på grund av utmattnin

Sammanfattning: People in Sweden are living longer than ever before, as research and improvements in medical care become progressively more advanced. Yet, absenteeism related to stress and clinical burnout has increased dramatically in the past decade. The purpose of this study is to investigate employers’ support functions regarding rehabilitation from clinical burnout, from the perspective of social workers. The research was conducted using qualitative, semi-structured interview sessions with 16 social workers that either have been or are suffering from clinical burnout. The main theory used was House’s theory on different types of social support, which classifies social support into four categories. The results show that the interviewees describe emotional support in ways that do not entirely correlate with House’s theory. The interviewees emphasised the importance of the support from family and friends, that they never stopped calling or texting. This especially entails the importance of someone recognizing the person’s needs without being asked to do so, being willing to listen, assisting in understanding and processing the anxiety, as well as offering a sense of emotional security and community. The majority of respondents stressed the crucial role of managers in their return to work, for example through continuous monitoring, follow-ups and adaptation of tasks. Relatedly, most respondents meant that they lacked a way of fully recovering. The absolute majority of those claiming to lack different kinds of support from managers. Roughly half of said respondents also experienced the lack of an insufficient sense of influence and autonomy in the process of returning to work. This study shows that emotional support from the employer has great positive effects on rehabilitation and the possibility for social workers to return to work following clinical burnout.