Nelly Akobia
Master of social work
Last autumn, when I visited a psychiatrist, he tried to calm me down by saying that I had no mental health problem at that stage; however, I could not agree: in my opinion, my biggest problem in that period related to mental health was burnout – professional burnout which is considered to be a prominent mental health problem by quite a number of scholars.
I have been a social worker for 10 years. I know for sure why I am here, in this profession. I know for sure that I cannot and do not want to be elsewhere, in any other profession. And I know for sure that no matter where my life takes me, I will not be able to pass the abundant number of social problems we encounter every day without doing anything (of course, I admit that there are moments when this “doing something” may be a feeling of remorse if I am together with my two children who are screaming, because they cannot agree on a toy and at this time, I am unable to provide support to a person who is in the street and is in need of my support for some reason).
I am saying that I am firmly rooted in this profession and no matter what happens, I am still a social worker. But there are periods in this profession when sadness bitterly creeps up on me, depression overwhelms me, and I am just struggling to believe that I can achieve real changes with my work or that I can change at least something for the better – at least one little thing. And this is not a feeling which lasts only for a brief moment. As a rule, this is complemented by a huge workload which is more than the parameters of my body and which can surely overwhelm me. And this is, my dear friends, when I have professional burnout. And the main aspect in this condition is not related to sleepless nights or deteriorated health due to a lot of work – the main aspect is the sadness which accompanies the realization that you cannot achieve real change. This is the feeling which we have often seen in the movies: when you are in the middle of the road, cars bypass you from all directions and you cannot change anything – you can just scream and that is it. This is the main component which makes you numb, unable to act and terribly non-productive. And a social worker without the belief in the better – this is a catastrophe, as the main thing we are obliged to believe in is that people, groups of people and in general, the society have a potential to change their own and others’ lives for the better.
One more and probably, the most dangerous aspect which can be a result of professional burnout, is the moment when you start to blame a service user and you join the rest of the society who already have knocked this person down and are “hitting” him/her with their accusing thought or comments. For example, if the whole school blames a child for his/her behavioral problems, calls him/her “bad, insolent and rude” and if you stand by these accusing persons even in your mind only, the situation is already urgent and crisis intervention is immediately needed.
Of course, a lot can be done to prevent and/or decrease professional burnout: separating personal and professional life, identifying and using opportunities to reduce stress and relax, learning how to say “no” so that the amount of workload does not become overwhelming, recognizing and valuing one’s own small achievements or even attempts, seeing even the small significance of one’s own work in the general context of changes and even getting support from a psychologist and/or support group.
However, it may be very difficult for an individual social worker to overcome professional burnout alone. And it is here that a professional supervisor should come into the picture with rolled-up sleeves who understands what the problem is and that this is not only a problem related to daily routine work – your only problem is not that you filled out a form incorrectly or that you could not understand a certain procedure, but you have a problem because you do not believe in what makes you a social worker. 
A professional supervisor helps you, first of all, to understand the problem you are facing (as you may often have difficulty to do this alone) and afterwards, to see why you are a social worker in the first place, that your work is meaningful and that it has a purpose. For example, if you are working with children living and working in the street - in the field where there is often minimal chance to achieve changes - professional supervisor should have a vital role to show these minimal changes to the practitioner social worker and to help the latter understand how his/her daily work will support more vivid changes in the system which will probably take at least the next decade to achieve (in my opinion, in the best case scenario). In addition, the professional supervisor does not leave the supervisee alone with this problem and constantly works with the supervisee in this direction for, at least, some period of time (which, in my experience, is not brief at all). The supervisor also helps you overcome the problems of your everyday work if something is above your abilities – for example, simply having no room to speak with the service user, or if you have to work in a hostile environment in an organization where others do not understand your role – professional supervisor has a vital role in such cases as well. Of course, this does not mean that a professional supervisor does everything for the supervisee, but his/her support and leadership in the process of overcoming professional burnout and providing better services to people is vital.
