Copingstrategier för att motverka empatitrötthet inom socialt arbete - En kvalitativ intervjustudie om hur socialarbetare påverkas av ett klientnära arbete

Sammanfattning: This study aims at investigating what coping strategies social workers who work close to clients use to deal with possible compassion fatigue and stress that the work may entail. Further, we want to observe how the concept of resilience is important for their well-being. To investigate this, eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with social workers who work in different workplaces, who all have continuous contact with their clients. The results of the study show that organizational factors are of great importance and can either lead to or reduce stress among social workers. The most common strategies that they used were to distance themselves through an active and meaningful leisure time, seeking social support by talking to colleagues, have continuous supervision within the organization, or focus on the positive changes clients make instead of the negative ones. Regarding age and experience, opinions varied as to whether this contributed to something positive, but most of the interviewees stated that experience taught them to find a better balance between work and their private life. Overall, the interviewees enjoyed their work, but all eight of them also reported symptoms of stress at times. Based on the stated symptoms and descriptions, it was concluded that all have experienced compassion fatigue as a result of their profession.