September 2024Vol. 25, No. 7Applying Protective Factors to Social Worker Self-Care

A protective factors framework is often promoted as a strategy for supporting child and family well-being and reducing the risk of child maltreatment. That same framework can be used as a self-care strategy to promote the health and well-being of child welfare workers who support children and families.

Protective factors are conditions and attributes, such as social connections or concrete support, that promote individual and family health and well-being. A recent brief from the Center for the Study of Social Policy explores how those protective factors can be applied to child welfare workers and their families. Taking Care of Yourself: Putting Protective Factors Into Play for Yourself covers five protective factors:

1. Personal resilience
2. Social connections
3. Knowledge of parenting and child development
4. Concrete support in times of need
5. Social and emotional competence of children

Within each category, the brief provides tips for incorporating the protective factors into your daily routine. These include strategies for taking care of yourself, building and maintaining positive relationships with others, and accessing resources and supports in your community. For parents, it also includes working on assumptions and understanding of parenting and child development.

The brief provides a series of questions to help social workers reflect on how the protective factors are present in their lives. In cases where the protective factors are not already prevalent, it provides strategies for incorporating them.

The brief is available on the Center for the Study of Social Policy website.