Dr. Lucy Hearne and Dr. Emmanuel O’Grady, University of Limerick, Ireland

IntroductionThis poster presents the findings from a national on-line survey in 2013 that investigated the issue of professional resilience for career guidance practitioners working in the 26 Irish Local Employment Services (LES).

RationalePolicy Context

The Irish recession has resulted in a concentrated policy strategy to address the national unemployment rate and support adults in their career trajectories. Specific strategies such as the Pathways to Work (DSP, 2013) have involved major structural changes across the training and employment sector including the LES Network (McGuinness et al, 2011). Irish employment services are now mandated to monitor clients’ progression through mechanisms and tools that somewhat crudely seek to measure the outcomes of interventions (Darmon & Perez, 2010; DSP, 2013). This requires LES practitioners to be competent in a range of activities to support and monitor the outcomes of their interventions with clients.

Professional Resilience

Resiliency research has concentrated on qualities (risk factors, protective factors or developmental assets); process (coping with adversity, change, or opportunity through law of disruption and reintegration); and innate (motivational forces leading to self-actualization and reintegration of fractured identities from disruptions) (Flach, 1997; Richardson, 2002). Recent ecological approaches view resilience as a process of negotiation between individuals and their environments for the resources to support themselves collectively (Ungar, 2012). Professional resilience and burnout prevention are pertinent to career guidance practitioners working in the LES who are exposed to clients’ difficult stories over time (Skovholt & Trotter-Mathison, 2011).

Research AimAim of study was to explicate issues related to LES practitioners’ resilience, and well-being in the context of supporting unemployed individuals and a high national unemployment rate.

MethodThis research used an online survey (Survey Monkey) to the total population of LES career guidance practitioners in the 26 LES Network. This survey explored practices relating to: work practices, client issues, stress, burnout, emotional well-being, professional resiliency, self-regulation and restorative practices such as supervision and CPD. Descriptive analysis was used to explicate findings.

Overall Conclusions• Client issues such as financial concerns, anxiety about the future, sense of hopelessness, poor self confidence, and lack of motivation are deemed most salient by the LES career guidance

practitioners.• The workload of practitioners has increased exponentially since the economic recession and is thus impacting on the quality of the ‘relational’ aspect of their work with clients.• Practitioners are largely supported by their family, friends and LES colleagues, but largely unsupported by Government policy makers.• The most common burnout symptoms experienced by practitioners' are low energy, empathy fatigue, emotional and mental exhaustion, increased irritability, and extreme dissatisfaction at

work.• Practitioners do not avail of external professional supervision due it not being provided or financed by their employers, and consequently rely on their own self-care strategies to maintain

resilience and wellbeing for their work.

IAEVG International Conference, Quebec, June 3- 6 2014

An investigation into the nature of professional resilience of career guidance practitioners’ in the Irish Local Employment Service (LES)

Results

ReferencesDarmon, I., & Perez, C. (2010) ‘Conduct of conduct’ or the shaping of ‘adequate dispositions?’ Labour market and career guidance in four European countries. Critical Social Policy, 31(1): 77–101Department of Social Protection (2013) Pathways to Work. Retrieved from http://www.welfare.ie/Flach, F.F. (1997) Resilience: How to bounce back when the going gets tough. NY: Hatherleigh Press.McGuinness, S., O’Connell, P.J., Kelly, E., & Walsh, J.R. (2011) Activation in Ireland: An Evaluation of the National Employment Action Plan. Retrieved from http://www.esri.ie/UserFiles/publications/RS20.pdfRichardson, G.E. (2002) ‘The Metatheory of Resilience and Resiliency’, Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58:3,pp.307-321.Skovholt, T.M., & Trotter-Mathison, M. (2011) The Resilient Practitioner; burnout prevention and self-care strategies for counsellors, therapists, teachers, and health professionals. NY: Routledge.Ungar, M. (2012) The Social Ecology of Resilience: A Handbook of Theory and Practice. New York: Springer Retrieved from http://resilienceresearch.org/2012

Sample (n=38): female (n=26) and males (n=12), working full-time (n=28) and part-time (n=6). Average age is 48, with age range of 29 to 63. Of 36, professional role titles varied: 19 Mediators, 5 Co-ordinators, 5 Guidance Officers/Workers, 3 Adult Guidance Counsellors, 3 Information Officers and 1 Career Guidance Practitioner. Length of time in current position ranged from 9 months to 17 years. Most significant impact of the national recession on their work has been proliferation in number of clients seeking help (94%), poor employment progression options (91%), increased client stress levels, increased administration workload for practitioners (88%), extensive waiting times for course availability (78%), scarcity of educational options for clients in geographical areas (59%) and the government moratorium on recruitment in the LES (34%). Figures 1 – 5 display additional key findings from quantitative data.

Figure 1. Prevalence of client issues as perceived by LES practitioners – rating out of 10

Figure 2. Sources of support in their professional role

Figure 3. Prevalence of participants availing of external professional supervision

Figure 4. Participants’ capacity to set boundaries with others

Figure 5. Experience of burnout symptoms (Morrissette 2002) by practitioners

Qualitative FindingsLES practitioners reported the most rewarding aspect of their work is the “meaningful engagement” they have with their clients. They view themselves as “change agents” in their clients’ progression. But some of this is becoming eroded because of enforced limitations on the amount and levels of interventions with LES clients with some practitioners “being pulled from all corners”.

In the main, whilst they do not have a high level of autonomy in their work, they experience reasonable rather than excessive demands from management in their workplace and the level of conflict between staff and management in their LES is low.

In general, practitioners reported they take care of themselves (nutritionally, emotionally and psychologically) as much as possible, they have an optimistic outlook in relation to their work, and have a physically active lifestyle. Some practitioners have had to cut back to part-time work, for one of them this has been to “redress a work-life imbalance to some extent”. Another practitioner has so far “managed to leave the frustrations and feelings of powerlessness at work behind me when I go home”.