Inside Social Work

Doing the work we love shouldn't make us ill. Talking burnout and self care with Helen Gray.

08 Sep 2019

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In this episode, we talk about burn out and why self-care is crucial to prevent burnout. Helen shares her personal journey in the social work profession and how she experienced burnout while managing a team. This led Helen to develop her own burnout course and resources to support social workers. Originally from the UK Helen studied Social Policy and Politics at The University of Newcastle Upon Tyne and has a Masters of Social Work from Queens University Belfast, in Northern Ireland. Helen’s career has mainly been in the Family and childcare arena including Statutory child protection in the heart of Belfast, work with youth at risk of homelessness in Northern Ireland and Sydney and managerial role in an NGO family support and risk prevention program with families that had ROSH reports made. In 2015 Helen experienced a psychological breakdown as a result of burnout and the impact of vicarious trauma and left her practicing social work career in mid 2016. Helen now has an emerging startup business with a focus on supporting practicing social workers to gain awareness, knowledge and skills to reduce the impact of vicarious trauma and burnout on their health and profession. Helen has a growing interest in the role of Moral Resiliency, Moral Distress and Moral residue play in a Social Worker’s career and wellbeing. Helen is launching a pilot of her specialised program, Because You Care - SOS (stands for save our social workers) in August providing online training and support to enable social workers to explore their wellbeing and the impact of their work. Burn out is such a popular phrase at the moment. Now considered and occupational phenomenon - changing what it means and how it impacts people's working lives Sometimes we don't understand the signs and symptoms of burn out, often thinking its something wrong with us and some kind of deficits we have. Syndrome from chronic workplace stress that hasn't been successfully managed. Easy to start associating blame, it’s not being managed by the individual, or by the organisation. We need to neutralise the idea of where the challenges have come, and not assign blame. We need to work together to prevent outcomes of burnout. Signs and symptoms of burn out Physical signs Feeling tired, lacking energy, lethargic Changes in sleep - too little or too much Changes in appetite Emotional signs Increasing irritability Self doubt Feeling unable to do the things you normally do Sense of failure Feeling helpless and hopeless Feeling detached Loss of motivation Being cynical and negative Decreased satisfaction Behavioural Withdrawing from responsibilities Isolating yourself Coping with alcohol or other drugs Being late to work Missing work all together Worker harder than...

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13:00H | 21 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

01 Jan 1970

Fin de Semana

10:00H | 21 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

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12:00H | 20 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

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Fin de Semana

2ª PARTE | 06 ENE 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

01 Jan 1970

El Partidazo de COPE

3ª PARTE | 22 ENE 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

01 Jan 1970

El Partidazo de COPE

3ª PARTE | 04 MAR 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

01 Jan 1970

El Partidazo de COPE

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Inside Social Work

Doing the work we love shouldn't make us ill. Talking burnout and self care with Helen Gray.

This episode hasn't been transcribed yet

Other recent transcribed episodes

13:00H | 21 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

10:00H | 21 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

12:00H | 20 DIC 2025 | Fin de Semana

2ª PARTE | 06 ENE 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

3ª PARTE | 22 ENE 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

3ª PARTE | 04 MAR 2026 | EL PARTIDAZO DE COPE

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