Well-Being And Secondary Traumatic Stress Of Social Workers In Namibia

ABSTRACT

Social workers and other caregivers professions are at risk of becoming negatively affected by the nature of their work. However, many reports also indicate positive outcomes, such as personal growth and finding meaning through working with trauma victims. General mental well-being refers not only to a state of absence of pathology; it refers to optimal well-being in tennis of the self-perceived level of positive and negative affect, as well as satisfaction with life at a particular time in life (a dimension of emotional well-being); autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations with others, finding purpose in life and self-acceptance (dimensions of psychological well-being); and self-discovery perceived development of one 's best potential, a sense of purpose and meaning in life, investment of significant effort m pursuit of excellence, intense involvement in activities and enjoyment of activities as personally expressive (dimensions of eudaimonic well-being). Namibia, also being a post-war country, has many social problems which indicate severe and trauma-related conditions among the social workers' clients. Hence social workers are at risk of being negatively affected by the trauma in a vicarious fonn ; a condition closely related to the DSM-IV posttraumatic stress disorder, and termed secondary traumatic stress. The aim ofthis research was to investigate the relationships between emotional well-being, psychological wellbeing, eudaimonic well-being and secondary traumatic stress in social workers ofNamibia. A cross-sectional survey design was used with a sample population