Do you social worker? Welcome to the podcast that
prioritizes the person behind the title social worker.
I'm your host. Lisa ran.
And I'm here to inspire and encourage your personal
development, promote, your well-being and leadership
development for your social work.
Practice, I transition from a decade in social work to an
author and leadership development coach for social
workers Nationwide, to help you overcome your personal, or
professional challenges, through the social work coaching herb.
Of the brand new Social Work coaching Hub offers resources
books, journals and Social Work events.
Visit Social Work coaching, Hub.com today, we're going to
talk about overcoming moral distress.
Let's talk. Moral distress, may not be a
term that you've heard before, but it's likely because you're a
social worker, it something you've experienced.
So let's start by defining what moral distress is then.
We'll talk about the different types of moral distress the
impact and then we'll give you some tips to overcome.
So, moral distress is an internal struggle.
And it arises when You Face an ethical dilemma.
So feeling trapped between your professional obligation and the
limitations of the systems that we work with in There are three
primary types of moral distress. Moral uncertainty, moral
constraint and moral residue. I'm going to walk you through
all three, and then we'll talk about the impact followed by
some tips to overcome. Number one model uncertainty.
So this occurs when social workers you are unsure about the
morally, right? Course of action in a given
situation. Now, it may be due to not having
a clear understanding of ethical standards policies or best
practices. But this is about being in a
place where you're unsure. You're unsure how to get from
place a to place, B, and how to do that correctly.
I know in my experience, you want to make sure I wanted to
make sure I was making the right decision and in social work,
you're faced with something new every single day.
And an all my coaching sessions that I had.
Last week, I had a few of my Cochise that was saying I'm not
sure I'm actually doing the right thing, I feel like I'm
just winging it basically, that's moral uncertainty.
Because they want to make sure they're doing the right thing.
It's unclear for whatever reason.
If they are doing the right thing, perhaps you couldn't get
the advice from Management in time.
Perhaps they couldn't find the policy that they needed in time.
There's so many possibilities. But essentially, it's a bridge
between what you think is right and the system.
This can happen a lot when you're working with other
agencies, right? You may say as that advocate for
the family, this is the direction of travel that we all
need to be working with it. However, the system with housing
or the mental health profession, and professionals that you're
working with say, well, this is our system and based on our
system based on our policies, based on what it is, the way
that we work. We can't meet this particular
need. Often it's we can't meet this
need at this time. They don't meet the eligibility
criteria. And you're the advocate and
you're saying, well, it's clear, this family, need this type of
support. We are not the experts in this
area. We are going to need support
from from this agency. I've had so many meetings where
I've had professional say, that's not within our remit or
they don't meet the criteria to access this service and then it
leaves this family in a place of limbo and it leaves you in a
place of limbo you have that moral uncertainty, because it's
clear what's needed. But the systems that are around
are not giving way and not making a way for you to to meet
that need That is my role uncertainty.
The other element of Maryland certainty that it will be remiss
of me. Not to mention this.
It's around employment challenges.
There's so many social workers that I speak to you, that have
employment challenges, there will be in all professions.
We're not special, but it will be in all professions.
However, there's moral uncertainty in those spaces as
well because you can be very clear about something you have
said, or done that you felt was right.
Or you may be in a position where someone has said something
to you, done something to you in an employment capacity.
And you're unsure morally, what is the right course of action to
take? If you raise it, if you escalate
it, this may be the consequence. If you don't raise it or
escalate it, this could be the consequence.
And as a result, you're in his place of moral uncertainty and
that can cause a lot of distress.
Because often what I've come across is.
They don't want to put themselves in a position.
Well, they'll be a vulnerable but be there's a consequence for
saying something. Now this conversation is moving
into a different realm, as you can.
Probably see. There's a slight shift.
I'm not going to delve into it too much on this podcast episode
where I just want to give you a 360 view of what moral distress
can include. It can be about the systems that
were working with in, but it also can be about you personally
and your personal experiences on your experiences with employment
with local authorities which are it is whoever you work for.
Feeling uncertain about what you're going to do.
Particularly, if you want to, you know, you're the kind of
person you really want to take the right course of action.
You want it to be perfect. You want to make sure the
message that you want to get across is expressed in the right
way and to the right people. But for whatever reason, The
Clarity on what decision to make.
It's just not there. That can cause distress.
My brand new publication the south care journal for social
workers is tailored specifically just for you.
It's a vibrant Journal designed to guide.
You towards a happier, healthier and more balanced, professional
life. It is a six-month undated
journal, and it is available on Amazon and, uh, Nettie.
So, go ahead and treat yourself. Let's talk about moral
constraints. This is a second type of moral
distress and this can arise when, you know, the ethically
correct course of action, but are unable to follow through due
to organizational policies resource constraints.
We know all about those post covid or external pressures.
So you are constrained in the action that you can take.
So, similar to what we talked about in moral and certainty,
when we were talking about, you're asking other agencies,
can you do these piece of work and they're like, no, this is
not within my my remit but you know, that is the right service.
That is the right piece of work. It's the right intervention for
that family. But for whatever reason, for
whatever reason you're unable to follow through with that plan.
Due to organizational policies and you know, resource
constraint service, changes, budget changes.
All of those elements can create constraint for you.
Being able to successfully intervene with the right service
for that family. Again that can lead to moral
distress, you know, very clearly, what needs to happen
for whatever reason? It cannot happen or it's taking
too long to happen. That's another thing waiting
times can cause a lot of distress and let's think of this
from the family's perspective as well.
If you're distressed about something being in place to
support you and to say, and they have course to impact on to have
a positive impact. Excuse me, on the family.
It's Keep the same for the family.
Imagine that moral distress that they are experiencing.
The third type of moral distress that we're going to talk about
today is moral residue. So this is referring to the
emotional and psychological impact that can linger after
making a decision that conflicts with your moral values.
So these are feelings such as guilt, or regret, or self-doubt.
Briefly, I want to share with you, I remember.
Carrying out a group coaching session and it was with an IR o,
a senior practitioner, and a social worker, and they have
been working with the family for a considerable amount of time.
Long story short, They had lots of feelings of Shame and guilt
and regret because there had been some changes within the
family unit and they felt as a professional group.
There was action that they could have taken.
That may have prevented what happened?
As a result of that they sought coaching, and it was a very
difficult session for them. There was lots of tears and lots
of soul-searching. And when it came down to it, it
was clear. They were in moral distress.
And some of that moral distress was linked to moral constraints.
and as a result of those constraints, they had to make
the best of the situation. They were faced with they had to
offer the best service that they could given the Direct Services.
They wanted them to work with for example accessing
counseling. And as a result of that
intervention, not being as accurate as they wanted it to
and being in a timely way. There were some changes within
the family and that caused a lot of distress for them.
This can happen in many ways for many different reasons.
It doesn't have to be that extreme, but my hope is
listening to this. This is resonating with you in
some way. The different stages of moral
distress, the different types of mold distress and, and how that
can come about. Sometimes you just do not have
the power or the influence to make certain changes or to
intervene in a certain way. You Advocate, absolutely. but
there are moments in time where we've all had to, in quote
settle, And it's unfortunate but particularly after covid, there
was a lot of settling because a lot of budgets had been cut.
So a lot of services that were available before before they're
no longer available. So, what is?
What are we supposed to do? Where are we supposed to go?
Where do we send that family? How do we support them in the
right way that they need to be supported?
And the impact of that is what we're going to talk about next.
if you want to promote your service or product on this
podcast, get in touch, email info at Social Work, coaching
hub.com Let's talk about the impact of moral distress.
I'm going to raise three things here.
Normalizing, complacency and confidence.
Let's start with normalizing. If we feel, we're unable to
influence change. And we have constraints.
That continually limit what we can offer families and limit our
capacity to support. Sometimes this can lead to
normalizing. and, You're demotivated.
To continue to challenge others and to advocate.
Because you're aware that the system.
Whichever system. That that is relevant for you.
The system for whatever reason is creating some constraints for
you. And as a result that can just be
over time, normalized. Almost like you're in submission
to it because you know you can't influence it all or change it
and that's something we have to be very careful of in social
work. We have to be very careful of
that because when we start normalizing things, that
shouldn't be normalized, we begin to not see things.
That should be seen. That should be called out.
That should be challenged. Number two.
Complacency. So similarly, similar, sorry to
normalizing complacency is where you just going through the
motions, you just accept, what's happening.
And when you work in that way, It can make it more challenging
for you to to see risk. To analyze to critically
analyze. And that can lead to you.
Not challenging enough. That can lead to your
assessments, not being in-depth enough and not showing the the
length and breadth and the ecological model of what's
happening for that family. Complacency is a dangerous place
to be. If you feel, you're becoming
complacent and just be nonchalant.
Essentially, That is a very clear indication that your
distress has gone beyond just being distressed.
You're now in a place where anything goes You could argue.
And we have to question. Are we being effective when
we're in that place? My answer to that would be no.
And that will be a time that you seek support from your
management seek coaching or counseling somewhere.
Something that is going to help you a Be Inspired again and be
be motivated to challenge. Be motivated to look at the
things that are causing you some distress and look at ways that
you could influence or help to change these things.
You may be rolling your eyes at me and thinking.
Well, clearly, I can't that's I've become complacent, but this
is what coaching can offer. It can offer you a place of
developing, a fresh new perspective, challenging, some
of the thoughts that you have developing a new narrative.
At least, if you were to come to coaching, or come to Canton and
wherever at least, just the act of that is not being complacent.
Thirdly, your confidence. When you feel you can't
influence or make change when you are suffering moral distress
particularly over a period of time, maybe you've
compartmentalised it. Maybe it's something that you
are fighting every day, fighting those fires every day.
Either, one of those spectrums can lead you to a place where
you are, losing your confidence in your social work practice. if
you feel you're not making the impact that you want to make,
You feel you're not making the intervention at the right time
for the right family. You feel like, what's the point?
if I can't access this service for this family, if I can't
challenge my manager positively, Well, what is the point of that?
And as a result you can just very slowly.
It can chip away at your confidence to perform at the
best of your abilities. So essentially what I'm saying
here is is moral distress is Must you must pay attention to
it when it's happening because the impact can be so subtle, but
it can be significant. Ever thought about joining the
swish Community. That's the social work coaching
Hub community. We're going to be joining
together at four events later on this year, you can access
resources journals. You can have money off the
journals and books, all of that good stuff.
So get involved and go to Social Work.
Cultural Hub.com and join the swish Community.
I'll see you there. We've talked about the different
types of moral distress. They'll forget, there are more,
there are more, there's moral injury, and all of those
elements there, but perhaps will carry that on to next week,
we'll see. Secondly, we talked about the
impact of moral distress. And its importance of paying
attention to when you are feeling distressed.
And lastly, we're going to give you some tips.
I say we but I mean, I going to give you some tips.
I like recording raw, I like recording, but when it's too
perfect, it's like, that's not, that's not normal.
That's not human. You do make these mistakes
sometimes though, it is what it is.
Okay, it is what it is. So I'm going to give you 3 tips.
On how you can attempt to overcome moral distress.
And they're actionable tips and it's going to help you to build
resilience in your practice. It's going to help you to build
in confidence to challenge. So, let's get into this.
Tip, 1 cultivating, ethical awareness and reflection.
So this is about developing a strong Foundation of ethical
knowledge and staying updated on the evolving standards in social
work. And you may be thinking well,
what time have I got to do that? I hear you.
I was there. I hear you.
Pick a channel.
There's so many channels online or send an alert to your phone
from different Social Work magazines.
I don't want to name them all but from different Social Web
magazines from different social media Pages.
Most people are social media. These days.
If you're listening to this podcast, this is class or social
media, right? So have something that is linked
to the evolving standards in social work.
That you listen to each week or that you read each week.
You've got to engage in regular self-reflection and seek
opportunities for ethical discussions.
We colleagues You got to seek those opportunity, so your team
meetings is a great opportunity if you want to bring an article.
Bring it for debate. I'm sure your manager will be
more than happy that they are not.
The ones leading the whole meeting, right?
So bring some bring an article, you know, you've got to be able
to find a space where you're developing your ethical
awareness. And the way to develop is not on
all about being in your own head, but it's also about
hearing other points of view, and then you begin to form your
own views from that. I would also add hear about your
professional values, so you will remember looking at your
professional and personal values during your social work
training. I just want to remind you of
that, bring that activity out again.
Bring that exercise out again, and go through it again because
your values change all the time. They're not static.
You know, it may be your top three values could be money
money, family and a job, but that could change to family a
job and money. Depending on what season you're
in, in your life, depending on your personal circumstances, or
your professional status at that time.
So I would highly recommend that you and you can just Google it
Google values exercise, and it will come up, that's something I
would highly recommend that you do and that is going to be part
of the foundation of developing your, ethical awareness.
Tip number two, Key. And this is exactly where I sit
seek support and collaborate. You have to remember that you're
not alone, I'm going to repeat that you are not alone somewhere
out there. There's another social worker
who feels just like you do. That's had the experience.
Just like, you have somewhere out there.
There is support out there for you.
I am one of them. I am one of them I'm here to
support you. That's the point of the podcast.
It's to give you some thought-provoking ideas, of
course to help you to develop. But as you know I offer
coaching. That is a form of seeking
support. Aside from me, of course, you
have support within your workplace.
You have your employment assistant programs. your peers,
your social worker, perhaps your manager, professional Networks,
Sometimes it helps to discuss moral dilemmas openly.
And collaborating with multidisciplinary teams.
Including legal, if you are able to get them in the room, I know
they're super busy but that can help to explore innovative
solutions and to work within the constraints of the system.
Yeah, building a support network.
Can provide validation, guidance, and alternative
perspectives, which again is going to help you with your
ethical awareness and reflection Lastly, tip number three.
Again, I sit within this realm, self-care and resilience
building now, don't switch off the podcast.
Don't do it. Don't press pause because I do
like whenever I got time for sale care.
I've got to get up and do this. I've got to get the kids ready.
I've got to do 10 million visits, I've gotta write this
without a court statement. I hear you and I've been there
and realistically, there are periods of time where you have
to knuckle down and just focus on the work.
That's required of you sometimes.
Is a two-week period or a three-week period but within
that time and certainly you could be making plans for when
that piece of work is finished, what you're going to do to
ensure that your you're maintaining your well-being and
you have got plans for yourself care.
It's inevitable that overtime. I will distress will have an
impact on how you care for yourself.
It's virtually inevitable because any form of stress, over
a long period of time, is going to have an impact on your mental
or physical health, in some way, because it's a form of stress.
So prioritizing your self care and emotional well-being is
going to strengthen your resilient in the face of moral
distress. You can almost argue that moral
distress is guaranteed to happen in social work because we're
working within systems. There's several systems from the
local Authority system to the multidisciplinary system to the
political system. All of these systems we have to
work within So therefore it's likely that moldy stress is
going to occur, so you can plan ahead.
Now, now that you've got the language as to what it is,
you're feeling because after that's what social worker say to
me in coaching sessions are like I didn't know that was actually
what I was feeling when you put a name to something, it takes
the weight off it. It can offer you an opportunity
for a different perspective. Hence engaging in activities
that promote relaxation. Okay, that's what self-care is,
you know, relaxing. I spoke to someone last week who
made a plan for self-care and the plan was I'm going to do
nothing. She said, Lisa ran, I'm not
making any plan, I'm going to do nothing and when she came back
to the coaching session, she said to me I did nothing that
particular day that I set aside for self-care.
I did nothing and it helped it felt great.
So let's not misinterpret what self care is about.
You don't have to go out there and get a massage.
You don't have to go to the gym. You don't have to do anything.
It's whatever you interpret it to be.
And that's why I created the journal the south care journal
for social workers. It goes through the different
types of self-care and ident and helps you to identify when you
go through the coaching exercise, which type of
self-care is your preference and based on that you then develop
yourself care plan. So, we South carries just
relaxation. What's relaxing to you?
What is relaxing to you, that's all you need to identify.
I would highly recommend, of course, I'm biased.
And I'm unashamedly saying the self curdled for social workers
will help you. It's available on Amazon and
Etsy, go to the Social Work coaching Hub.com, but even all
of that aside, if you don't get the journal, essentially, you
just need to figure out. What do you want to do to relax?
That's going to help you recharge and reboot because
often and I'm trying to end this this podcast at a decent time
because some people have said, 40 minutes is too long.
I know it is I'm trying but sometimes these ideas just come
to me because I record raw, right?
But essentially what I'm saying is There are moments in time
when you're going to feel completely and utterly
distressed. It happens because of what we've
talked about today or you're overwhelmed or you stressing and
there's so many different elements and different
contribution, factors that can make you feel stressed.
As a social worker, we all know this, right?
It's how we respond. That's the key.
So when you are relaxing, self caring, well-being?
Yes, I know that's not a word. When you're doing all of those
things, you're building your resilience, your recharging.
Often people somehow forget that we're not machines.
We turn up every day. We give our all we do everything
that were meant to do and beyond that, we're not machines, we
can't just keep going at that level.
So, relaxing is recharging. Just like, you need to charge
your phone, everyone charges their phone every night.
Next, to my bed, is my phone and my charger.
And I probably shouldn't be next to the bed, but that's a
different podcast, for a different day, your work phone,
you have to charge it because why it runs out of battery sound
so obvious. So why, as a machine do we have
to charge all of these are phones and laptops every day.
But would not charging ourselves.
You tell me how that makes sense.
Model distress. It's inevitable.
In the social work field. but if you're armed with the knowledge
support and self-care, Forward slash relaxation.
You can navigate these dilemmas more effectively and you can
continue to make a positive impact with the families that
you're working with. Remember the tips, cultivating
ethical awareness seeking collaboration and support and
prioritizing your well-being. I'm saying that loudly
prioritizing your well-being easier said than Than done at
times. I have been there.
Trust me, I have been there. But even in that week where, you
know, that you are back to back to back to back.
If you just have one lunch break in that week, 1 foot soak in
that week, one hour of doing nothing, whatever it is, that
helps you to relax. You can use the self the self
care journal for social workers to help you with that and keep
you on track. Yeah, my final message is to
stay strong. Keep advocating for justice.
Try your best not to normalize or become complacent or to doubt
yourself. You're doing a great job, you
are doing the best you can with what you've got available to you
with the resources that are able to help you.
You are accessing those Yeah, stay strong.
I'm here for you. I'll be back.
And join me next time for an episode of dear social worker.
Let's talk. God bless.
And join me next time for an episode of dear social worker.
Let's talk. God bless.