“Jag har fortfarande känslor kvar, men man kan inte ta till sig allting” - En kvalitativ studie om socialsekreterares upplevelser och hantering av den emotionella påverkan inom socialpsykiatrin

Sammanfattning

This study aims to focus on how social workers within the Swedish social psychiatry services experience their emotional impact of their work and what strategies they use to manage the emotional impact. This study uses a qualitative semi-structured interview method, consisting of seven separate interviews with social workers from four different municipalities in southern Sweden. Hochschild’s (2012) theory about emotional labor and Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) theory about coping is used to analyze and to further explain the findings, which were generated through a thematic analysis of the empirical material. The findings suggest that social workers experience different kinds of emotional impact because of their work and that the impact can differ depending on working experience. The strategies used to manage the emotional impact include seeking emotional support from colleagues, as well as more practical support from their work and establishing boundaries between work and private life to prevent emotional impact. In conclusion, the study shows that emotional impact is a part of social psychiatric work and that developing effective coping strategies is important for the social worker and their professional sustainability.