This webinar is presented by the Office of Practicum Learning at the Rutgers School of Social Work 

The adoption of two amendments into the NASW Code of Ethics in 2021 was a dramatic and institutional recognition of crises as they occurred. 

Developed within the context of the then gradually remitting COVID-19 pandemic, these amendments addressed the primacy of self-care and cultural competence. While regularly discussed and explored, self-care often remains at the fringes of practice and policy implementation. 

A closer examination of the self-care amendment provides fresh perspectives about this seemingly central but, in fact, elusive topic. Social work leadership, delivered by prepared, senior practitioners, is required to advance self-care from its largely “adjacent -to -practice position” into an integral, vivid, and palpable dimension of social work practice, regardless of the population served or service environment. Identifying barriers to achieving a self-care culture and habit is essential to making progress. 

Social work leaders need to advance their own self-care fluency on behalf of themselves, the colleagues they supervise, the employers they work with, and ultimately, the client communities that rely upon all of the above for social work services. 

This webinar will invite attendees who are leaders to consider why self-care is the sine qua non of effective, ethical practice and how they, as leaders, can carry out their duties to bring self-care out of the shadows and into implementation. Skill-based activities, including grounding techniques, will be shared.