RCT: Mindfulness for Social Work and Self-care

Social work is a stressful occupation with social workers at high risk of job-related stress and burnout. Mindfulness has been evidenced as a promising approach for improving: recovery from stress; behavioural responses to stress; and resilience. The Mindfulness-based social work and self-care programme, a bespoke and innovative online mindfulness programme developed for frontline social workers, have been shown to be effective in improving aspects of psychological and general wellbeing among a social work population. The main aim of the study is to confirm the efficacy of this bespoke, innovative, 6-session Mindfulness Intervention for social workers (MBSWSC) in reducing social worker stress, feelings of burnout, anxiety, low mood and improving well-being. The study will also compare outcomes from the MBSWSC with a briefer, condensed 3 session mindfulness programme (MBSC). The findings of this study will serve to complement and confirm the findings of an initial RCT, but in a post-covid environment.