Organizational Wellness and Macro Social Work Practice

The profession of social work increasingly experiences the damaging impact of professional burnout, staff turnover, and compromised services. Organizational wellness involves planful efforts to address these concerns and promote employee well-being. A rationale for organizational wellness is articulated, including its value for social work. The evolving paradigm of a holistic, systemic approach to organizational wellness is then discussed. Next, how social work is ideally situated to lead organizational wellness efforts is detailed as an arena of macro practice and as providing a framework for designing and developing an organizational wellness culture. Using social work competencies, social workers can use this framework to provide leadership in conceptualizing, planning, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining organizational wellness. Further critical considerations underscore how this leadership promotes the profession’s mission, supports the profession’s viability, and establishes a vital arena for ongoing macro practice.

“More Than Peer Support: Organizational and Relational Intervention Model”

The chapter describes a replicable and innovative approach designed to assist first responder communities through the mental health challenges they face in their personal and professional lives. The First Responder Assistance Program (FRAP) strives to create a healthy environment, through a unified structure, three tiered organizational and relational intervention approach, inclusive of peer support, peer chaplaincy support, and clinician involvement. The FRAP Model establishes a direct correlation between organizational wellness, and the individual health of its members. It emphasizes a “top to bottom” organizational intervention, with the understanding that no matter how much help is provided to the individual, the environment must be addressed in order to obtain sustainable results. It stresses a “holistic” approach to healing with a focus on post traumatic growth and the systematic building of individual and organizational resilience.

Employee wellness on the frontline: an interactional psychology perspective

PurposeEmployee wellness is vital to creating high-quality employee–customer interactions, yet frontline service workers (FLSWs) do not typically engage in, or benefit from, wellness initiatives. This paper aims to conceptually model the interactive influences of organizational and employee factors in influencing FLSW involvement in wellness programs and provides suggestions on how service organizations can enhance wellness behaviors and outcomes.Design/methodology/approachThis paper builds upon classical and contemporary management theories to identify important gaps in knowledge about how employees and firms engage with wellness. Interactive psychology, emphasizing multidirectional interaction between person (employee) and situation (organization) wellness orientation, is introduced.FindingsThe paper develops a model that can be used to assess organizational wellness program effectiveness by emphasizing the interaction of employee and organizational wellness orientation. The model illustrates that wellness effectiveness relies equally on employee agency through an active wellness orientation matched with the organizational wellness orientation.Originality/valueThis paper questions the dominant approaches to assessing the effectiveness of workplace wellness initiatives, arguing for a more humanistic and agentic perspective rather than traditional organizationally centered fiscal measures.

“More Than Peer Support: Organizational and Relational Intervention Model”

The chapter describes a replicable and innovative approach designed to assist first responder communities through the mental health challenges they face in their personal and professional lives. The First Responder Assistance Program (FRAP) strives to create a healthy environment, through a unified structure, three tiered organizational and relational intervention approach, inclusive of peer support, peer chaplaincy support, and clinician involvement. The FRAP Model establishes a direct correlation between organizational wellness, and the individual health of its members. It emphasizes a “top to bottom” organizational intervention, with the understanding that no matter how much help is provided to the individual, the environment must be addressed in order to obtain sustainable results. It stresses a “holistic” approach to healing with a focus on post traumatic growth and the systematic building of individual and organizational resilience.

Monitoring the organizational wellness of a physician residency program: A quality improvement process

Background Burnout and depression throughout physicians’ career cycles have been increasing. There has been a call for medical education leaders to devote resources to bolster the next generation of providers and shift the culture of medicine to organizational initiatives that impact physician well-being. Objective: The goal of this project has been to monitor and improve the organizational wellness of a residency program based on four core organizational areas: (1) culture of meaning and mission, (2) work capacity, (3) control and flexibility in decision-making, and (4) creativity in work–life balance. Method: A quality improvement strategy was implemented to monitor organizational wellness. The wellness was assessed five times over the course of 18 months. The survey was designed to evaluate the four core components. At each time interval, improvement strategies were implemented to address the wellness drains and strengthen drivers. Results: The four time series evaluations (residents: n = 19) indicated that culture of meaning, teamwork, and personal creativity are consistent wellness drivers. Work capacity and lack of control over decision-making were consistent drains. From first until last measurement, there was a slight improvement in control-decision-making; however, the burden of electronic medical record (EMR) charting and strains of coverage continue to drain our residency. Discussion and Conclusions: This model incorporates four categories for assessing organizational wellness within a residency program. The conceptual model is used as a framework to define, measure, analyze, and improve on organizational wellness. This process provides programs with a feedback approach to continually monitor and reassess the wellness of the organizational systems.