The Professionals’ Resilience on the Social Work System

Child protection professionals are exposed to several workplace risks, often leaving them vulnerable for negative outcomes like burnout. Some professionals do well despite exposure to these risks, which could be described as resilience. There are few studies which analyze risk and protective factors of professionals who work in a complex child protection system and who are addressing beneficiaries’ wishes, needs and hopes. Starting from a brief literature review, this article presents the findings of qualitative research conducted in the Timis Directorate of child protection context. Positive and negative factors that support and affect child protection practices emerged from a survey that was conducted through the collaboration of among 47 child protection professionals. Their opinions reveal issues that shouldn’t be neglected. Protective factors among social workers concerned the intrinsic value of the profession and peer-to-peer support and mutual actions within the team. The results of this study could inform the managers of the child protection services about the issues that professionals deal with and how to act in this way. The managers have to support the professional more effectively and avoid the paradoxical risk of forgetting about their own wellbeing.


Keywords: resilience, social work system, professionals, protective factors, risk factors