Self-Care
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Tips for Careworkers:
Self-Care

What it is: Self-care is a range of information, skills, and attitudes that careworkers can use to maintain mental and physical wellbeing.

Self-care can include understanding your strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs, motivation, and emotions. In palliative care, self-care can also include grief and bereavement support, and understanding how to recognise and prevent burnout.

Why it matters: Caring for others can be rewarding. However, staff working in aged care look after many people who die. As a result, they may experience repeated grief.

Grief over the death of residents or clients is not unusual and may contribute to stress or burnout. Self-care is important to maintain balance in life.

What I need to know: It is helpful to be a member of a team that provides support, reflection, and debriefing. A team may be your work colleagues or a network of people outside of work.

Team meetings, debriefing or regular supervision can provide support.

Do

Report to nursing/supervisory staff if you see signs that suggest a person is not coping. These can include:

  • physical and emotional exhaustion
  • poor sleep
  • headaches
  • negativity or feeling useless
  • lack of enjoyment
  • not working effectively
  • absence from work.
 

Do

Acknowledge your grief and recognise that it is a normal reaction to loss.

 

Do

Talk to your supervisor and colleagues about what you are experiencing and request their help or support from a professional counsellor if needed.

 

Do

Develop a self-care plan and strategies that promote your physical and emotional wellbeing. Self-care strategies may be different for everyone; select ones that work for you.

 

Do

Visit the ELDAC Self-care room.

 

My reflections:

 

What support does my organisation provide for self-care?

 

Have I created a self-care plan and, if so, does it need to be reviewed?

See related palliAGED Practice Tip Sheets:

Grief and Loss among Staff

Talking within the Aged Care Team


 

For references and the latest version of all the Tip Sheets visit Practice Tip sheets for careworkers

 

CareSearch is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.
Updated July 2022

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