Self and Collaborative Care for New Care Workers and Their Mentors

What if we created a different kind of workplace for and with new and/or young folks coming into the social work field?

Workplaces shouldn’t behave like frat houses repeating hazing rituals across generations. In frat houses, young people persuade themselves that the newbees must undergo the same embarrassments and tortures just because they had to endure them first. Similarly, social workers don’t have to burn out and be replaced by younger, fresher models just because that’s how it’s always been done.

This resource discusses the ethics and practical strategies for preventing C-PTSD and burnout. I made this resource because I get a lot of requests for advice on burnout prevention, and I think much of the help provided out there is more philosophical, academic or scientific than practical. Instead, this is like the “Cole’s Notes” of a book on PTSD in caring work. In this resource, I distill what I have learned about workplace PTSD and burnout after 15 years of working with homeless young people and women who have experienced violence.

I describe my past work as trauma-informed mentorship of young harm reduction leaders (traditionally called “peer workers”). Many entered the social work field after training in my program. It has been important to me to not simply pass on the torch to young people only to burn them out. This task has always been easier said than done. I hope this tool will help mentors follow an ethic of care for new workers. This…