Is Self-Care Sustainable Without Structural Support? A Systematic Review of Self-Care Interventions

Social workers navigate systemic stressors while managing self-care amid scant institutional support. The purpose of this systematic review is to critically examine the state of social work intervention research for self-care practices.

This review includes empirical research articles focusing on self-care interventions in social work between 2011 and 2022 (N = 22).

All self-care interventions focused on modifying individual behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge.

Most (83%) research on self-care interventions focused on mindfulness, which tended to be associated with improvements in mindfulness, distress management, and clinical self-efficacy. The remaining interventions tended to be associated with improvements in self-care attitudes, knowledge, practices, and wellness.

Structural factors and socioeconomic privilege have been found to be predominant predictors of whether social work students, educators, and practitioners engaged in self-care practices, yet no interventions incorporated structural or institutional variables. Multilevel interventions addressing structural, institutional, and relational determinants of burnout are needed.