Based on recent Australian research, this presentation rebuffs the common deficit-oriented discourse of worker distress and dysfunction in challenging social work contexts, and in so doing, argues the relevance of a relational-reflective model for the development and maintenance of a resilient workforce. Whilst the benefits of relationship-based and reflective approaches have long been identified and promoted in social work practice, this can be challenging in social work contexts such as child welfare, where managerialism, highly emotive content, and exposure to adversity and trauma are prevalent. While there are inherent complexities and adversity in the work, many practitioners even in fields of practice such as child welfare, continue to focus on relational aspects of the work, engage in reflection and maintain high quality and effective practice.
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A recent Australian longitudinal qualitative study exploring resilience in child welfare workers provided significant insights regarding the importance of both relationship-based approaches and reflective practice to staff wellbeing and retention. The support for relationship-based and reflective practice approaches through supervision, peer support, and the organisational context were significant contributors to this. Even when client engagement was difficult, using relationally focused approaches was important to workers. The relational-reflective model of resilience presented, offers an alternative to the common discourse of burnout, vicarious trauma, and worker distress and dysfunction, and is offered as a model to instead facilitate the development and maintenance of resilience in practitioners, and workforce retention. Given a discourse of worker distress not only in child welfare but other social work contexts, this study and the model presented have relevance across many fields of practice.