Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/29054
Title: Increasing child protection workforce retention through promoting a relational-reflective framework for resilience
Contributor(s): Russ, Erica  (author)orcid ; Lonne, Bob  (author)orcid ; Lynch, Deborah (author)
Publication Date: 2019-11-26
DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.104245
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/29054
Abstract: Background: A deficit-oriented discourse dominates child protection workforce research with worker distress including burnout and vicarious trauma predominating. Recent Australian research challenges this discourse through new understandings of worker resilience, with potential benefits for service quality and workforce retention, warranting consideration of this alternative lens.
Objective: This Australian longitudinal, qualitative study explored child protection worker perceptions and experiences of resilience to inform understandings of worker resilience, and implications for worker functioning and workforce retention.
Participants and setting: Participants were a purposive sample of 24 front-line child protection workers, in seven locations, from the state-based statutory child protection agency in Queensland, Australia.
Methods: Using semi-structured, in-depth interviews, this longitudinal, qualitative study utilised a reflective approach drawing on participant understandings and experiences. The thematic analysis via NVivo utilized theory informed a priori coding as sensitizing concepts, which was further developed through inductive coding drawing meaning from participant data.
Results and conclusion: With resilient workers maintaining effective practice over extended periods, findings highlighted the importance of reflective practice and relationship-based approaches to well-being and retention. Support for these practice approaches through supervision, peer support, and the organization were significant contributors. Participant-identified influences on resilience informed a relational-reflective framework, which recognizes the significance of reflective practice and the relational context to resilience, and how this is experienced. Given the common deficit-oriented discourse of worker distress in child protection, this study and the framework presented have relevance for workers, managers and organizations by reconceptualizing how resilience can be promoted to further workforce retention.
Publication Type: Journal Article
Source of Publication: Child Abuse & Neglect, v.110, p. 1-12
Publisher: Elsevier Ltd
Place of Publication: United Kingdom
ISSN: 1873-7757
0145-2134
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 119999 Medical and Health Sciences not elsewhere classified
160799 Social Work not elsewhere classified
160702 Counselling, Welfare and Community Services
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 440902 Counselling, wellbeing and community services
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 940112 Families and Family Services
929999 Health not elsewhere classified
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 230107 Families and family services
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal
Appears in Collections:Journal Article
School of Health

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