During their social work education, students engage in a number of stressful learning activities, often simultaneously, which can negatively impact their well-being, mental health and social work practice. Mindfulness practices are beginning to be integrated into social work curricula globally to enhance student self-care along with key social work practice skills and values. This mixed methods study examined the effects of a bespoke six-week online mindfulness-based social work and self-care (MBSWSC) programme on the stress, burnout, well-being, anxiety and depression levels of thirty social work students from two universities in the UK. This study also examined the effects of MBSWSC on a number of mindfulness-based mediators of change in these outcomes. Participant perceptions of the benefits of the MBSWSC programme on their well-being and social work practice are further explored via a thematic analysis of an open-ended questionnaire. Statistically significant changes in all variables were found post-programme except for depression and loss of empathy/depersonalisation, a facet of burnout. The qualitative data provided a deeper insight into the potential benefits of the programme for the enhancement of student well-being, mental health and anti-oppressive social work practice (AOP).

The primary objective of this study was to examine the effects of a bespoke and innovative six-week online Mindfulness-based Social Work and Self-Care (MBSWSC) programme on the stress, feelings of burnout, anxiety, depression, and well-being of a sample of social workers. This secondary objective was to examine the effectiveness of MBSWSC at improving a number of potentially important mindfulness-based programme mechanisms of action, including mindfulness, attention regulation (decentering), acceptance, self-compassion, non-attachment, aversion, worry and rumination. A randomised controlled trial with repeated measures (pre-post intervention) was conducted to evaluate the effects of MBSWSC against an active control. The active control was a modified mindfulness-based programme which focussed on supporting increases in mindfulness and self-compassion in social workers with a view to improving the same primary study outcomes. Sixty-two participants were randomly allocated to MBSWSC (n = 33) or the active control (n = 29). When compared to the active control group, the MBSWSC programme was found to be significantly superior at improving stress, emotional exhaustion, anxiety, and depression. MBSWSC was also superior to the active control at improving acceptance, mindfulness, non-attachment, attention regulation (decentering) and worry of the social workers in this study. The results suggest that MBSWSC is a very useful therapeutic programme, which has the capacity to improve a range of important mental health and well-being outcomes for social workers. The results also indicate that the MBSWSC programme has the capacity to improve a range of important mindfulness-based mechanisms of action. Trial registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT05519267 (retrospectively registered).

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (hereafter CRPD) has provided a radical imperative for the reform of mental health and capacity legislation around the world. The interpretation of the CRPD has been controversial, ranging from the complete abolition of detention, forcible treatment, and substitute decision-making to accepting that elements of these measures need to be retained based on non-discriminatory criteria, additional safeguards, and a comprehensive shift towards supported decision-making. While the potential effects of the CRPD on mental health social work and social work generally are considerable given their shared commitment towards social justice, to date there has been no review of research evidence exploring their relationship. In addressing this knowledge gap, this study held a preliminary discussion with practitioners and academics at the European Association of Social Work Mental Health Special Interest Group in Amsterdam 2022, followed by a scoping literature review on the question: What impact, if any, has the CRPD had on social work practice? The review produced four main findings: impact on legislation; positive impact on practice; limited impact on practice; and impact on social work education and research. In sum, while there were some positive indications of social work and mental health social work practice being influenced by the CRPD, these were scant. Barriers to change included tendencies among some social workers to practise substitute decision-making, in part related to resourcing and policy contexts, and understandings of disability aligned to individualised/medical rather than social perspectives. The results indicate that legal reform on its own is insufficient to impact social work practice, and that realising the potential of the CRPD will necessitate good quality training, as well as improving social workers’ knowledge of the human rights of people with mental impairment.

This article reports on one aspect of a study investigating mindfulness in social work education and practice. Specifically, it explores its potential as a reflexive form of self-care in the journey from student to newly qualified social worker. Comprising a participatory action research approach, longitudinal qualitative design and bespoke mindfulness programme that included compassion-based and non-violent communication practices, the study tracked six participants who completed the programme from the end of the first year of their MSc in Social Work to six months into post-qualifying practice. The experiences of three other participants who were unable to complete were also considered. Data were gathered using interviews, discussions groups, questionnaires and the researchers’ reflections and analysed using thematic and framework analysis, and transformative learning theory. The findings suggest that a critical framing of mindfulness encouraged reflexive forms of self-care in three key ways: validating the importance of self-care and developing awareness of internalised oppression; supporting reflexive engagement with service users; and better mitigating work-related stress and role conflict. Further study of these emergent findings is recommended, focusing on the synergies between critical mindfulness and reflexivity and the profession’s social justice aims.

Social workers are at high risk of work stress and burnout, with the Covid-19 reported to have amplified this risk. The Mindfulness-based Social Work and Self-Care programme (MBSWSC) has been found to support cognitive and emotion regulation of social workers, leading to improved stress, burnout, mental health, and well-being. This randomised controlled trial (RCT) aimed to replicate and expand the findings of an earlier RCT of MBSWSC, with a wider group of social work professionals (including managers), by evaluating the effects of MBSWSC (n = 29) versus an active control (n = 31). Replication of RCTs acts as an important means by which findings can be confirmed, results replicated, generalisability assessed and processes and applicability improved. When compared to an online active control group, MBSWSC (which was also delivered online) was found to improve stress, emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation of service users, anxiety, depression, well-being, along with a range of mindfulness mechanisms of action which support cognitive and emotion self-regulation. The results from this study evidence the acceptability, effectiveness and durability of MBSWSC, and provide clear guidance that if MBSWSC is implemented across social work services, social workers are likely to experience improvements in these critical social work practice and self-care outcomes.

The mindfulness-based social work and self-care (MBSWSC) programme was created in order to support social work students and practitioners to develop enhanced social work and self-care skills. This programme was found to improve feelings of stress, anxiety, mental well-being and burnout of thirty social work students. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was chosen in order to generate a comprehensive understanding of what the potential mechanisms of action of MBSWSC might be. Data were collected using validated quantitative measures and through an open-ended qualitative questionnaire. The quantitative data were analysed using regression analyses. The qualitative data were thematically analysed. Though this study contains limitations, it’s results suggest that social work student stress, feelings of burnout, anxiety and wellbeing can be improved by supporting students to develop approach-oriented stress coping skills and capacities in acceptance, mindfulness, self-compassion, non-attachment, attention regulation/decentering and non-aversion. This study suggests that these skills and capacities can work individually or collectively to directly improve these outcomes and also indirectly by reducing a student’s tendency to think negatively when they are stressed. The results provide some preliminary evidence on what the mechanisms of MBSWSC might be, enhancing our understanding of how mindfulness-based programmes might achieve positive outcomes.