Social Service Staff at all levels are often overworked and often feel under-appreciated. We tend to have many responsibilities and fewer resources than we would desire. We also have responsibilities to home, family, and more outside of our work environment. Despite these many challenges, we must consciously plan time to care for ourselves in physical, emotional, and intellectual ways. We can begin by assessing our current quality of life through a tool such as the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL) and by creating our own self-care plan in a variety of areas. This plan may include elements as basic as proper nutrition and physical fitness as well as elements that are interpersonal, spiritual or professional. Seeking support from our colleagues and offering support to them in exchange can be extremely affirming. Once we have assessed our self-care needs, we can then build a self-care plan to ensure that these needs are met. We must then make a commitment to carrying out our self-care goals. Keeping this commitment can improve our professional performance and the quality of our personal lives. Doing so is our ethical duty not only to ourselves, but also to our agency and our clients.
That said, we have attached the FCC Self-Care Plan that we invite all staff to review. There will be a brief discussion about self-care with your supervisor as part of the employee evaluation process. The ProQOL is also attached as a tool you can use to begin the process of completing your plan . We recognize self-care plans are a personal tool, therefore you will not be required to provide a copy to your supervisor or prove that you completed a self-care plan. Rather, our goal is to begin a discussion about what support you would like to help you accomplish your self-care goals. Please read FCC’s Trauma Informed Care Philosophy for more information (The Self-Care Plan, ProQOL, and Trauma Informed Care Philosophy have been added to the All-Agency Documents and Forms page).
If at any time you would like some examples, support or reflection with your self-care plan, please do not hesitate to reach out to a colleague, TIC committee member, or a supervisor. TIC committee members are: Vanessa Southworth, Amanda Jalensky, Kristin Kingery, Leah Morken, Darci Roesler, Melanie Johnson, Melony Hanson, Alicia Skiles, Alicia Hengel, Dianne Range, Kenzie Scoville, Kayla Barnhardt, Brienne Shaker, Heidi Hovland, and Teresa Nundahl.
