Why Wellbeing Matters in Safeguarding

Safeguarding professionals protect at risk individuals from harm, often dealing with distressing situations such as abuse, neglect, and exploitation. While the focus is rightly on ensuring the safety of others, it is equally crucial to think about your own wellbeing. Without proper self-care, the emotional toll of safeguarding work can lead to burnout, compassion fatigue, and reduced effectiveness and efficiency.

Safeguarding professionals are frequently exposed to traumatic stories and high-stress environments. This emotional strain can accumulate over time, impacting mental health, relationships, and even physical health.

It is important to acknowledge that safeguarding work is inherently challenging. If we cannot take care of ourselves, then it may become increasingly difficult to take care of others.

In this blog, we will explore why self-care is essential for safeguarding professionals. We will share some practical self-care strategies and discuss how organisations can help their employees prioritise their own wellbeing.

So, what is the impact of constantly dealing with highly emotive and challenging situations?

Risk of Burnout

When professionals are constantly dealing with high-stakes or stressful situations, exhaustion, both physical and emotional, becomes increasingly likely. Burnout can manifest as detachment, as reduced empathy, and as a sense of hopelessness. It can severely impact both job performance and an individual’s life outside of work.

Vicarious Trauma

Vicarious trauma occurs when professionals absorb the trauma of those they are helping. It can cause anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress symptoms, even if the professional has not directly experienced the traumatic event themselves. Without proper self-care, this can lead to long-term mental health challenges. It can also contribute to other conditions, such as compassion fatigue.

Compassion Fatigue

Compassion fatigue is similar to vicarious trauma, in that it refers to the harmful impact of prolonged exposure to other people’s trauma. Compassion fatigue is akin to post traumatic stress disorder. Symptoms can include headaches, stomach upsets, inability to sleep, a reluctance to engage with clients, emotional disconnection, intolerance, scepticism, and irritability.

Beyond the serious health implications of these conditions, an individual suffering from burnout, vicarious trauma, or compassion fatigue will be less effective at working in a safeguarding role. This is why it is imperative that we promote our own wellbeing, while also looking out for our colleagues.

What is Wellbeing?

When we talk about “wellbeing”, we are referring to the state of being comfortable, healthy, and happy. Wellbeing encompasses both the physical and mental aspects of a person’s life. It is not just the absence of illness or unhappiness, but a positive state where individuals thrive in their personal and professional lives.

Wellbeing Strategies for Individuals

Set Emotional Boundaries

Setting boundaries is crucial to managing your own wellbeing. While it is important to show empathy and concern for those you are supporting, it is equally essential to separate their experiences from your own emotional state.

Regularly remind yourself that you cannot fix everything. You can only do what is in the parameters of your role or organisational abilities. Focusing on your own wellbeing is a necessary part of effectively helping others.

• Practice mindfulness or journaling after emotionally heavy cases to offload stress and regain perspective.
• Draw a trauma map to help you define your personal triggers so you can find ways to manage them.
• Regularly compliment others when you feel they have done something valuable and useful.
• Make a list of helpful local and national organisations that can support clients in specific areas. If you can refer people to these organisations, you will not have to worry about fixing everything yourself.

Take Care of Your Physical Health

Your body and mind are intricately linked. Regular exercise, a healthy diet, and sufficient sleep can enhance your resilience to stress. Taking care of your physical health equips you with the energy and focus necessary to navigate challenging workdays.

• Schedule short walks or exercise breaks throughout your day to boost your mood and physical energy.
• Organise fun and inclusive activities for team meetings.
• Find time to get outside and enjoy nature.
• Make physical activity part of your lifestyle. This could involve joining a team, a club, or a gym, or it could simply involve going for more walks, runs, or swims.

Use Peer Support Systems

It can help to talk to colleagues who understand the demands of your role. Engaging with a peer support group or a colleague who can relate to your challenges can help you process emotions and prevent isolation.

• Set up regular check-ins with a trusted co-worker or join a group where you can openly discuss your experiences in a safe environment.
• If there are no opportunities in your organisation for formal peer reflection, why not set one up or suggest this to management?

Engage in Activities That Recharge You

Find activities outside of work that help you decompress and regain emotional balance. This could include restful activities such as meditation or reading, creative activities such as painting or cooking, or simply spending time with loved ones.

• Dedicate time each week to an activity you enjoy. Treat it as an essential part of your routine, not a luxury.
• Treat yourself from time to time. This could involve anything, from a slice of cake after lunch, to an elaborate spa weekend.
• Try new things as often as you can.

Make use of Training Opportunities

Training can help you grow in your emotional resilience while building up confidence in your decision making.

• Take advantage of whatever training and development opportunities your organisation offers.
• Try to disconnect from your day job throughout any training and development sessions. Focus on learning, and on building the skills you can bring back to your role.

Disconnect

It is important to regularly disconnect from your role so that you can enjoy proper rest and time away. In our age of smartphones, this might be easier said than done.

• Try to avoid checking devices outside of worktime. Turn your work devices off when you’re not working and leave them in a designated space until you need them again.
• Take regular breaks throughout your workday. It can also help to plan activities for these breaks, such as going for a walk, or listening to a podcast.

Seek Professional Therapeutic Support

It is important to recognise if the emotional load gets too heavy to carry by yourself. Therapy or counselling can provide invaluable support, offering techniques for coping with stress, trauma, burnout, and compassion fatigue.

• Many organisations offer therapeutic services and access to mental health resources. Do not hesitate to take advantage of them.
• If you do not feel comfortable doing this through your organisation, contact your GP for a referral to counselling.
• You can also look online or in your local community for groups and services that offer support.

Organisational Support for Effective Self-Care

While self-care is a personal responsibility, organisations can play a critical role in supporting their staff. Healthy work environments promote a culture where self-care is encouraged, not stigmatised.

Provide Regular Supervision

Effective supervision can function as a form of emotional support. Regular check-ins with supervisors should not only focus on case management, but also on the staff’s emotional wellbeing. These check-ins can provide a space to reflect on difficult cases and to share feedback that fosters personal growth.

Policies and Procedures

Robust wellbeing policies and procedures can establish expectations and let all staff know what sort of support is available. Good policies and procedures can also outline the steps staff should take if a problem ever arises.

Encourage a Healthy Work-Life Balance

Overworking leads directly to burnout, which will reduce the quality of care given to at risk individuals. As such, organisations should actively promote a healthy work-life balance by ensuring that workloads are manageable, and through encouraging staff to take regular breaks and to use their annual leave.

Implement Wellbeing Initiatives

Organisations can help normalise self-care in safeguarding work through running regular workshops on managing stress, along with peer support systems and team-building activities.

Dedicated wellbeing initiatives within an organisation send the message that staff should look out for themselves and each other, as well as the people they care for. Highlighting and celebrating good practise, while encouraging others to do the same, can help boost morale and job satisfaction.

Conclusion – Self-Care Can Empower Us To Safeguard Others

Self-care should not be considered a luxury. It should be viewed as an absolute necessity when working in safeguarding.

By actively engaging in self-care practices, safeguarding professionals can maintain their wellbeing, reduce the risk of burnout, and continue to provide effective care to those who need it most.

Both individuals and organisations need to prioritise self-care. This can help create a resilient and compassionate workforce that is capable of tackling the complex challenges that safeguarding work entails.

Emotional Wellbeing for Safeguarding Managers – Online Workshop

We run online sessions exploring the impact and effects of working within a safeguarding role, either face-to-face or over the telephone.

The three hour session will equip staff on how to manage your own emotions and wellbeing while supporting others through their safeguarding journey.

We will explore tools and resources that you can use to develop periods of reflection and debriefing. We will also explore risk assessment, and how you can effectively prioritise your workload when providing safeguarding support. Throughout, we will refer to relevant research and discuss evidenced-based examples of best-practice – along with examples of what might happen when wellbeing is not a priority.

If you want to organise one of these workshops for your organisation, email our training team on LQ-ACT-Training@nottingham.ac.uk.