Why Self-Care Is Vital for Social Services Professionals

Andreina Magallon, California State University, Monterey Bay

Abstract

The Health Project Center (HPC) is a nonprofit organization serving the Central Coast of California. HPC helps the needs of older adults ages 65 and over, families, and communities by organizing and implementing high-quality programs and planning. The Multipurpose Senior Services (MSSP), the program provides Case Management to low- income, the share of no cost, and medical eligibility seniors. Furthermore, MSSP helps older adults who are at risk of losing their independence, especially at home, by providing case management services to assist clients with daily living needs so that they may live healthy lives. The purpose of this capstone is to examine the impact of self-care, work setting stress, and burn out in case managers working at the HPC Monterey County office. According to Mayo Clinic (2019) “case managers have a high percentage of experiencing burn out due to not performing self-care (para. 1)”. Stress and ignoring self-care to one’s self can impact the way case managers help clients. It’s essential to take care of ourselves before helping others, no one else will, and eventually, the person will suffer. A pre-survey of six questions was given to the employees of the HPC to help identify if they are experiencing high levels of burn out in the workplace. The results based on the data indicated that most of the workers realize they are experiencing stress to some degree and are taking care of this before it’s too late. Most of the employees do believe self-care is important and should be addressed in the world of case managing.