Helping Professions Research Articles

Job Burnout Among the Helping Professions: The Roles of Childhood Maltreatment, Attachment Styles and Perceived Supervisor Support.

Job burnout is a major predicament globally, especially among the helping professions. Based on the job demands-resources (JDR) theory and on attachment theory, this study explored the relations between a history of childhood maltreatment (CM), insecure attachment styles (avoidant and anxious), perceived supervisor support and job burnout. A sample of 320 helping professionals participated in the study, of which 35% reported experiencing CM. Findings confirmed the hypothesis that a history of CM was positively related to both avoidant and anxious attachment styles. Anxious attachment style partly mediated the relationship between CM and burnout. In addition, the relationship between CM and burnout was mediated by avoidant attachment style and perceived supervisor support, so that highly avoidant professionals perceived their supervisors as less supportive, reporting higher levels of burnout. Notably, there were no discernible variations in burnout levels when comparing professionals who had experienced maltreatment with those who had not. The study highlights the value of adopting an attachment perspective to better understand job burnout among the helping professions.

Cultural Competency: A Cardinal Force in Social Work Practice and Service-A Cultural Practice Guide for Human Services and the Helping Professions

Culture is a significant factor in human development, sustainability, and societal cohesion. It is greatly cherished and holds universal significance to individuals, groups, families, communities, societies, and nations. Culture affects how a victim, survivor, client, or family responds to life altering experiences such as domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, sexual abuse, and trauma. It also influences how a client or family deals with loss and grief, resilience, and recovery. Hence, understanding different cultures and cultural practices, symbols, artifacts, the meaning they hold, and respecting and operating within the confines of a set culture is very important. Cultural competency is a key medium through which this need can be addressed. Cultural competency is a core principle that should undergird a social worker’s service/practice with clients as enshrined in the Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers. Failure to execute cultural competency is detrimental to the delivery of appropriate and effective services to clients, and a digression from the code of ethics and professional standard of practice within the profession of social work. The execution of cultural competency in social work practice fosters a positive and enduring therapeutic relationship between the social worker and client, and lays the foundation for productive engagement, interaction, and intervention. From this perspective, this article embodies a review of the research literature on the topic of culture and culturally competent practice from different disciplines. The review and analysis include a study this author conducted in Ghana-Africa that examined the significance of culture and its impact on individuals and their perceptions as well as behaviors within a cultural context. Specifically, the study focused on the cultural effects on learning and the transfer of knowledge, and this paper relates its significant implications for understanding culture and responsiveness to cultural practices within professional practice. The findings from this original study revealed that culture impacts an individual’s perception and behavior significantly. The implications for culturally effective social work practice were discussed and recommendations for cultural competence, responsive, and responsible practices including anti-oppressive intervention strategies at the micro, mezzo and macro levels were put forward. In addition, a cultural conceptual practice model called GACIE was proposed for use in assessing and intervening with culturally diverse ethnic minority clients.

Explaining Psychological Distress among Men in the Helping Professions: A Serial Mediation Model

ABSTRACT Men in the helping professions face many challenges, including stressors related to the nature of the work itself and work environments typically considered “feminine”, which may be related to psychological distress. The current study used a serial-parallel mediation model to explore whether selected work-related indices are associated with psychological distress among men in the helping professions. Specifically, the model examined the role of self-reported empathy (the ability to feel or act empathetically towards clients), self-efficacy, and job satisfaction, in the association between burnout and psychological distress. Structured questionnaires were administered to a sample of 343 male nurses and social workers in Israel. The results indicated a significant mediating effect of empathy in the relationship between self-defined burnout and psychological distress. Additionally, a mediating effect of self-efficacy was detected in the association between self-defined burnout and psychological distress. Furthermore, a significant indirect effect of self-defined burnout on psychological distress was sequentially mediated by self-efficacy and job satisfaction. These results are highly relevant for reducing psychological distress among men in the helping professions, considering their specific needs and characteristics. IMPLICATIONS A serial-parallel mediation model can help examine the role of empathy, self-efficacy, and job satisfaction in the association between burnout and psychological distress among men in the helping professions. Raising awareness of the challenges men face when working in the helping professions and of barriers to their own help-seeking may help reduce the consequences of burnout among this population, locally and internationally.

Virtual Internships and Experience in the Helping Professions

Virtual Internships and Experience in the Helping Professions

Student Self-Care and Mental Health Well-Being through Creative Art and Art Journaling: Facilitating Self-Care Opportunities through Creative Art for Students in the Helping Professions

Student Self-Care and Mental Health Well-Being through Creative Art and Art Journaling: Facilitating Self-Care Opportunities through Creative Art for Students in the Helping Professions

Amanda Gebhard, Sheelah McLean, and Verna St. Denis, eds., White Benevolence: Racism and Colonial Violence in the Helping Professions

Amanda Gebhard, Sheelah McLean, and Verna St. Denis, eds., White Benevolence: Racism and Colonial Violence in the Helping Professions

Mapping a Taxonomic Framework for Developing Adolescent Mental Health Literacies for Educators, Librarians and Other Helping Professions

The adolescent mental health burden is a global phenomenon with implications for morbidity and mortality. Adolescent health disparities have been impacted by the underutilization of mental health services, stigma and shortage of culturally and age-appropriate mental health programs and interventions globally. Mental health literacy is one way through which we can bridge this gap (Eisenbach & Frydman, 2012). This is because mental health literacy is an empowering tool that educators, librarians and helping professionals can utilize to promote community health while training emerging leaders across disciplines to develop culturally relevant services and resources (Mehra & Jaber, 2021). However, the translation and transportability of mental health literacies across various communities and contexts is contingent of several factors-the communities being served, cultural context, and the availability of resources. 
 In this study, we searched APA PsycInfo, a premier database for mental health practitioners. We applied the following search terms, education, adolescents, “mental health literacy” or “mental health literacies” that were combined using a Boolean strategy. Our search generated 157 articles. Through a content analysis, we utilized the framework for information literacy for higher education (Association of College and Research Libraries, 2016) to analyze the abstracts of 80 of these articles. The findings could potentially bridge the gap in teaching, learning, practice and competencies for educators, librarians and mental health practitioners.

Results of the Implementation of a Comprehensive Socio-Psychological Program to Foster Professional Empathy Among Professionals in the Helping Professions

The article presents the results of research on the empathy of policemen, rescuers, doctors and psychologists, as the best representatives among helpers. It also describes the qualitative and quantitative changes in the levels of empathy among these specialists after the implementation of a comprehensive socio-psychological program. The goal is the approval of a complex socio-psychological program for the formation of professional empathy among specialists in helping professions, in particular, police officers, rescuers, doctors and psychologists. To conduct the research, the following methods were used: psychodiagnostic technique “Diagnostics of the empathic abilities level” by V. Boiko, content analysis, and Wilcoxon t-criteria to determine statistically significant shifts. The results. On the basis of the conducted research, it was established that empathy undergoes positive changes under the influence of the proposed comprehensive social-psychological program. As we can see the t-Wilcoxon results showed statistically significant shifts at the p<0.01 and p<0.001 levels. Positive changes occurred among representatives of all studied professions, however, the highest rates of change were found among psychologists and police officers. Conclusions. Theoretical analysis shows that empathy is mostly considered as an emotional component of the personality, which often appears in a negative way for specialists of some professions. However, the empathy of rescuers, police officers, doctors and psychologists manifests itself through a behavioral component and contributes to the emergence of empathic actions. Therefore, the positive results of the implementation of a complex socio-psychological program allow us to insist on the effectiveness and feasibility of its application for other specialists in the field of helping professions.

Book Review: White Benevolence: Racial and Colonial Violence in the Helping Professions

Book Review: White Benevolence: Racial and Colonial Violence in the Helping Professions

Queerness and Queer Subjectivities in Home Economics: Navigating and Disrupting the Helping Professions in Higher Education

ABSTRACT Home economics is a diverse helping field that includes the areas of child development and education, nutrition, cooking, and the dietetics profession. Historically, these fields have been the domain of heterosexual cisgender women, with research and discussions of queerness limited. In this article, using queer methodologies and a queer autobiographical writing approach, we explore our experiences as two queer individuals who teach in disciplines within home economics, with the intent of cultivating more space for queerness within the fields of early childhood education and dietetics. We created common themes of queer subjectivities and queer knowledges from our autobiographical writing. In the queer subjectivities theme, we analyze the regulation and surveillance of masculinities and queer subjectivities. In the queer knowledges theme, we explore issues of queer pedagogies and practices within teaching. Recommendations for creating queer potentialities that disrupt normative notions of care that silence queer subjectivities and knowledges within home economics are discussed.

Book Review: Program Evaluation—A Practical Guide for Social Work and the Helping Professions

Book Review: Program Evaluation—A Practical Guide for Social Work and the Helping Professions

Interprofessional Perspectives of Mental Health Crisis for Nursing, Health, and the Helping Professions, Kris Deering and Joanne Williams, eds

Interprofessional Perspectives of Mental Health Crisis for Nursing, Health, and the Helping Professions, Kris Deering and Joanne Williams, eds

Avoiding Burnout In Helping Professions: Treatment and Intervention Strategies

Helping professions tend to take a serious physical and emotional toll on those who work in the profession. To establish a lifestyle of avoiding overextending oneself, professionals should work to not only hone their craft, but also learn techniques and strategies to enable self-care. Learning to deploy treatment and intervention strategies to develop a solid self-care regimen will not only improve the level of service provided, but will maintain a more physically and emotionally healthy workforce. This article will explore the definition of burnout and how to identify and combat it, but also offer the opportunity for the helping profession providers to develop self-care techniques and strategies for themselves. By establishing a system and implementation strategy on the institutional level, providers can address the root of burnout. No single intervention will create a culture where burnout does not exist. However, a combination of strategies and interventions among both the institution and the individual can provide employees with a greater sense of meaning in their work, thus providing the personal investment necessary to control and eliminate burnout tendencies. Keywords: helping, emotional, burnout, self-care, regimen, techniques, strategies, investment, meaning

The Life World of a Helping Profession in the Pandemic: Rethinking of Symbolic Boundaries

The Life World of a Helping Profession in the Pandemic: Rethinking of Symbolic Boundaries

Context and consequences of helping-profession students’ intercultural experiences before they enter profession

Although the literature has documented helping-profession (HP) university students’ intercultural experiences during internships and supervision, less is known about their experiences with diversity prior to beginning their training. This study aims to understand how psychology, social work, occupational therapy and midwifery university students experience human diversity before their integration internship (the start of their autonomous practice). In what contexts do they experience significant intercultural experiences? What consequences do these experiences have for these students? In this study, 32 students, mostly young women, were interviewed. Thematic and co-occurrence analyses revealed that participants’ significant intercultural encounters occurred in the context of tourism, studies, personal (identity-related and interpersonal) or professional and social engagement experiences. These experiences generally strengthened participants’ openness to the Other and their world. They also fostered some awareness of their own culture and relative wealth. All but their professional and social engagement experiences led participants to question or affirm their identity and values. Behavioral changes are infrequent consequences of identity-related, professional and engagement experiences. Reflections are provided on how HP university programs could be improved.

Birth Doula Care in California During COVID-19: The Impacts of Social Distancing on a High-Touch Helping Profession.

Birth doulas were deemed “non-essential” personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic and were generally excluded from attending hospital births in person. This study documents the impacts of pandemic-related contextual factors on birth doula care in the San Francisco Bay Area, examines how doulas adapted their services, and explores implications for policy and practice. We employed a contextually bound qualitative case study methodology driven by social action theory and conducted interviews with 15 birth doulas. The pandemic disrupted physical settings, the social environment, communication modalities, contractual arrangements, and organizational level factors. The historical context also amplified awareness of institutionalized racism in birth settings and highlighted birth doulas’ advocacy role. Striking deficits exist in birth doulas’ integration into US healthcare systems; this made their services uniquely vulnerable to the pandemic circumstances. Birth doulas’ value ought to be more formally recognized within health policy, health insurance, and hospital systems as complementary care to that provided by medical providers to improve access to high-quality perinatal care.

The Effect of Gender and Age on the Dark Triad in Helping Professions – the Comparison with General Population

Helping professions represent professions in our society, whose main aim is to help others. Less attention was paid to the fact that, like every person, a helping professional has, to some extent, maladaptive personality traits too. The aim of the present study was to explore three aversive personality traits - Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy on a sample of helping professionals. The study was conducted on a sample of 312 participants from different sectors of the helping professions - pedagogical workers, healthcare workers, rescue workers, social workers and general population. The Slovak version of Short Dark Triad - SD3 has been administered (Jones & Paulhus 2014; Čopková & Šafár, 2021). The main result showed that helping professionals scored significantly higher than general population in psychopathy. The testing of between-subject variability while controlling the effect of gender and age indicated that in psychopathy healthcare workers and rescue workers scored significantly higher than general population. We find it helpful to point out that even among helping professionals, who are usually expected to be selfless and prosocial, we can find individuals who are attracted by the other side of pursuing this type of profession - the power they have over the person they provide help to. Based on several limitations we consider this study as a pilot one that might focus the attention on this understudied topic.

중년기 여성의 진로전환: ‘사람을 돕는 직업군(Helping professions)’의 진로생애사 연구

본 연구는 생애 이야기 속에서 드러나는 중년기 여성의 ‘사람을 돕는 직업군(Helping professions)’ 진로 전환에 대해 사회관계적, 심리내적 양축의 경험을 심층적으로 탐구하는데 목적이 있다. 본 연구의 참여자는 중년에 ‘사람을 돕는 직업군’으로 진로 전환을 한 6명의 기혼 여성들이다. 자료는 진로 주제를 중심으로 한 생애사 기반의 면담을 통해 수집 되었으며, 삶의 영역, 전환점, 적응으로 분류하는 Mandelbaum의 분석 방법을 틀로 삼았다. 주제별 분석을 통해 첫째, 삶의 영역이 진로 생애의 발달적 전개 속에 드러났고, 둘째, 전환점은 중년 진로 전환의 직접적 촉발이 된 계기들로, <예상치 못한 아픔과 그 현장에 머무름>, <진정한 욕구를 성찰하게 던져진 질문들>, <우연히 경험하게 된 기회 속에서 반응하기>, <생계를 위한 선택과 숨어있는 능력의 발휘>이다. 셋째, 적응 방식은 중년 진로 전환의 선택과 결정을 위한 주요한 방법이자 가치로, <실천적 배움과 결단>, <궁극적 질문과 성찰>, <허용 범위 넓혀가기>, <세상의 필요로 확장>이다. 이러한 결과를 바탕으로 원형 심리학 기반의 네 가지 유형을 도출하고 진로 전환 속의 심리적 작용에 대해 논의하였다. 진로 전환을 생애 전체를 관통한 사회문화적, 심리적 요소들을 통해 바라볼 때, 자신의 진로를 구성해 나가는 균형 잡힌 선택과 적응이 가능하며, 중년 여성의 자기실현적 진로 전환을 위한 통합적, 전문적 돌봄이 필요함을 제안하였다.

Motivations for Forgiving an Offender with Practical Implications for Those in the Helping Professions: A Qualitative Study.

While the forgiveness literature is rapidly growing, little attention has been paid to the general public's motivations for forgiving. Using a qualitative approach, this study examined 100 participants' stated reasons for forgiving. The following seven themes have emerged: (1) forgiveness is the key to inner peace, (2) relationships matter, (3)forgiveness is conditional, (4) they forgive because of love/concern for the other in the human community,(5) forgiveness is a (moral and religious) duty,(6) they forgive for the sake of others, and (7) they forgive for growth. When considering motivations for forgiveness, participants tended to focus on what they could restore or gain as a consequence of forgiving, supporting the findings of past studies. However, some notable differences were also found when questions were asked in different ways. Major findings, implications for those in the helping professions, and limitations and future directions are discussed.

Metaphysical Diversity in Mental Health Discourse: The Key to Scientific Progress in the Helping Professions

Mental health problems represent a significant and growing challenge across the globe. Although progress has been made developing effective therapeutic interventions, this paper argues that a lack of metaphysical diversity hinders scientific advancement in this crucial area. Using the United States as an example, demographic data is reported illustrating the under-representation of theists in psychology and social work, the two largest providers of mental health services in America. Drawing from McIntosh’s theory of privilege, it is posited that secular perspectives enjoy an advantaged status in mental health discourse, a status that is reinforced by the dissemination of secular narratives in culture-shaping forums. To illustrate how limited diversity impacts service provision, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is used as a case example. While the secular values embedded in CBT suggest it is often a good fit with secular clients, these same values may limit its validity with committed theists, such as Muslims. The paper concludes by suggesting that increased metaphysical diversity will help advance scientific knowledge by fostering the creation of research agendas that reflect the values of the diverse demographic groups mental health professionals are called to serve.