RCT: Mindfulness for Social Work and Self-care

Summary

Social work is a stressful occupation with social workers at high risk of job-related stress and burnout. Mindfulness has been evidenced as a promising approach for improving: recovery from stress; behavioural responses to stress; and resilience.

The Mindfulness-based social work and self-care programme, a bespoke and innovative online mindfulness programme developed for frontline social workers, have been shown to be effective in improving aspects of psychological and general wellbeing among a social work population.

The main aim of the study is to confirm the efficacy of this bespoke, innovative, 6-session Mindfulness Intervention for social workers (MBSWSC) in reducing social worker stress, feelings of burnout, anxiety, low mood and improving well-being. The study will also compare outcomes from the MBSWSC with a briefer, condensed 3 session mindfulness programme (MBSC). The findings of this study will serve to complement and confirm the findings of an initial RCT, but in a post-covid environment.

Conditions

• Burnout, Professional
• Mindfulness
• Stress, Psychological
• Behaviour

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Mindfulness-Based Social Work and Self Care (MBSWSC)

MBSWSC is a unique mindfulness-based programme for social work and self-care which has been specifically developed for online delivery. The MBSWSC programme is embedded within key cognitive and emotion regulation, and stress coping theory. This programme combines mindfulness practices with psychoeducation with the aim of allowing participants to reduce any negative thinking about the past and future by learning skills that will allow them to focus on the present. It will also focus on how to effectively apply these newly acquired mindfulness skills in social work practice. The programme has been the subject of an initial RCT, which has helped to inform the current programme content and structure. The MBSWSC programme comprises 6x1.5 hour sessions, delivered weekly, over a 6 week period. Homework, in the form of mindfulness practices, is given each week. This will take approximately 20-30 minutes to complete, on 6 out of 7 days, each week.

BEHAVIORAL

Mindfulness-Based Self-Care (MBSC)

MBSC is a modified, condensed Mindfulness Based Intervention; with a key focus on self-compassion/self-care. Key practices in this condensed programme were chosen for their relevance and utility to social workers. The MBSC programme comprises 3x1 hour sessions delivered over a 6 week period, with one session every two weeks. Homework, in the form of mindfulness practices, is given each week. This will take approximately 20-30 minutes to complete, on 6 out of 7 days, each week.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Queen's University, Belfast

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Alan Maddock, Dr · University College Dublin

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-10-04

Primary Completion

2023-03-08

Completion

2023-03-08

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations