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 www.palliaged.com.au/PracticeTipSheets

 

CareSearch is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care.
Updated July 2022

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