I’m a social worker with mental health issues…what do I do?

The following blog posts are going to look at a number of parts of the experience of being a social worker experiencing suicidal ideation.  Each blog post will look at the specific parts that impact how social workers contend with their lived experience as a person in the world with the experience of being a social worker.  Social workers operate across various systems in our community and have exposure albeit different levels to deep pain, trauma and suffering.  It is possible the field can do a better job in understanding this lived experience, its impact, and how the field can be more proactive in the care and support of social workers to minimize an unanticipated harm. 

Part 1: Lack of good research on social workers experiencing suicidal ideation. 

Working in the field of social work can be tricky.  We encounter vast systems of oppression, become exposed to the trauma of others, often find we are paid very little and support even less.  While this is not the story of every person in social work, many of those working in the social work field are working with people at the most difficult or painful times in their lives.  Being with a people in a supportive and open way has an impact on us as a human person.  It can shape and challenge us in ways that are really conscious; perhaps we are more cautious around certain people, we hold our children a bit closer or it makes our humor more dark.  There can also be other ways the profession can impact us in a more unconscious way including the way it impacts our mental health.

Research tells us that people who enter the field of social work often have higher rates of mental health needs or trauma experiences either from childhood or as adults.  These increased rates combined with the exposure to trauma can really diminish hope and possibility.  It can leave us struggling to take care of ourselves.   If we are rallying all of our resources to manage what is happening internally, we are missing our clients, not able to hold space the same way or see them as humans in complex situations.

When thinking about this series, investigating what research says to understand being a social worker experiencing suicidal ideation seemed like a good start. After doing a decent search using some of the main sources (Research Gate and Google Scholar) found very little research to make that image more clear. 

There was a 2004 study on social workers and suicide rates which suggested that we need more research to understand the various factors that contribute to a social worker dying by suicide.  This study did look at a specific area in the United States but the study found there were several variable factors as well as poor tracking of the causes of death to make sense of this specific study.  To say this was surprising would be an understatement given the world recently going through a global pandemic. 

While COVID-19 has opened the eyes to many of us on the impacts of the pandemic on the healthcare field, this hasn’t seemed to translate to the social work field.  The irony in much is of this is that social workers are often working in the field of healthcare at places like the emergency department, primary care doctors offices, insurance companies and other medical professions or as part of an interdisciplinary healthcare group. 

While the data is not there, many of us have some anecdotal items that could point us in a direction of noticing some concerning patterns.  We might see other social workers around us struggling, we might know our own mental health has been impacted or we might be at an agency or practice where a social worker or other social work staff has died by suicide.  These lived experiences can be just as powerful as research but we often are not talking about it in an open way or feel we have the safe support to ask for help.

The primary way we can start to understand being a social worker with suicidal ideation is to do some damn research.  We need to talk to social workers in the field, understand their stories, listen to their lived experiences and try to make sense of patterns or themes so we can better care for ourselves and each other. 

Check out the next part of the series will look at the lack of discussion happening in graduate schools about social workers experiencing mental health or having their mental health impacted by the field.