Establishing and Promoting Self-Care Within a Human Service Agency
Establishing and Promoting Self-Care Within a Human Service Agency
Katie Salvatore, M.Ed., BCBA, LABA
In an industry faced with post-pandemic staffing shortages, the question of how to promote self-care and decrease burnout among autism service providers has become more critical than ever before. Burnout can be defined as a work-related illness that results from ongoing psychological stress (Leoni et al., 2020), and it is widely believed to lead to other illnesses and injuries. Given the potential impact of this work-related illness, significant research has been done on the factors contributing to it and what can be done to mitigate these. However, many identified factors that seem to lead to staff burnout and turnover, such as challenging behaviors and relatively low wages, often seem immovable (Leoni et al., 2020). In response, many autism service providers have increasingly focused on promoting self-care among their employees.
